


Brinkmanship *****ABANDONED*****

by herbiecide



Category: RWBY
Genre: Betrayal, Gen, Just like Final Destination 3, Other, Other Characters TBD - Freeform, Partner Betrayal, Was a serious fic, but is now a crack fic, you are all stuck on this doomed rollercoaster ride with me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:28:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 59,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29245824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herbiecide/pseuds/herbiecide
Summary: It was a fun journey, but I am putting this on "indefinite hiatus" as the fancy writers would say. Maybe in the future this will be finished.This intro is bait BTW;Jaune confesses his sins, and his friends choose to betray him at his lowest point. With Ozpin giving him one last chance to prove himself, will Jaune be able to put everything behind him and become the huntsman he was meant to be? Will the students of Beacon be able to handle the improving Jaune? Who will break first in this battle… of brinkmanship?
Comments: 72
Kudos: 16





	1. The Greek Tragedy

“I wasn’t really accepted into Beacon.”

“Wh-What do you mean?!”

“I mean, I didn’t go to combat school! I didn’t pass any tests! I didn’t earn my spot at this academy!”  
“I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied.”

“What? But why?!!”

“Cause this is what I’ve always wanted to be!”  
“My Father, My Grandfather, My-”…

Pyrrha Nikos has just walked past the roof door after hearing about Jaune’s transcripts.

This may seem like just a touching moment for the two of them, but there was something different about her.

As soon as the lie was revealed it became a battle of will to avoid giving away her disdain.

She lost this battle too, sporting a microscopic grimace on her face and having a burning fire in her eyes (and not the good kind).

But even someone who was a master at picking up subtle cues would find it hard to see, never mind someone as socially oblivious as Jaune.

But, as always it is not that easy. After the initial shock, her mind has

entered a state of conflict;

“Should I crush his dreams?”

“Should I help him out?!”  
“Should I support him in a dream so insane?!”  
  


This gets even worse as she watches Cardin climb on the ledge and extort the hell out of him.

She watches the confidence that she just knew took him ages to muster fall apart like a bullet hitting a glass window.

She watches her crush wilt like a flower starved of water.

She just watches…

\----Pyrrha POV----

Back in the JNPR dorm room, everyone is asleep. But not her.

After watching Jaune struggle with himself for almost a half-hour before finally giving in to sleep, she can only think one thing:

**Why did I fall in love with him?**

Of course there’s the surface; Jaune didn’t treat her like a porcelain doll.

He didn’t even know who I was until I mentioned Pumpkin Pete’s cereal of all things.

He didn’t stand in awe like a kid would after meeting Mickey Mouse.

He didn’t treat me differently because of my success.

But, just as in her life, everyone has a mirror…

He didn’t know my clues in class earlier.

He didn’t take the obvious hints I’ve been giving him.

He didn’t ask m- NPR when he needed help.

He didn’t stand up for himself.

He didn’t leave Weiss alone after the million-and-one rejections.

**He didn’t ground himself to reality.**

Where did that thought come from?

She doesn’t know, but they are dominating her mind more and more with each passing hour.

The one thing she was good at besides winning tournaments was putting on a happy face.

But even the Invincible Girl has a weakness…. And that weakness just HAD to be a blond boy with the purest of hearts.

But why him!

Why the one who can’t fight a plush teddy bear?

Why the one who makes me melt into a blob of happiness?

Why the one who can’t see me that way?

Why the one who makes my heart throb every time he laughs?

Why, why, why, **why, why. Why, WHY, WHY-**

“ _ **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”**_

It leaves my mouth before I can stop it. Jaune stirs. He cannot know how much he tears me apart, how much pain I am suffering for him, how much-

“What happened? I heard a scream. Are you ok?”

Quick, put on the mask!

“I’m fine. It was just a nightmare…”  
“O-Ok. Sleep well Pyr.”

And then he flashes that smile and I am just- uggggh!

Why must life be so hard?

I look at the clock. It’s almost 3:30. **A M.** Classes are in 4 hours and I haven’t even gone to sleep yet!

\----*----

She falls into the most tumultuous sleep in her career.

The alarm rolls around faster than a freight train and she awakens.

Luckily Forever Fall is not for two days, or else she might have collapsed under sheer exhaustion.

But today is a day of choices. Pyrrha knows she can not keep this down for long.

She has to take this somewhere. But where?

Taking it to Ozpin could get him expelled, and then he’ll be really fucked.

Taking this to Jaune would be like putting kerosene on a fire. Who knows how he’ll react to seeing “The Invincible Girl” be cracked like a hard-boiled egg?

**Not. Happening.**

So then what? Ren and Nora? They already have to deal with a “questionable” team leader, but to have the #1 fighter in all of Beacon be broken too?

They might distance themselves…

Or if they take it out on Jaune too?

God no!

Glynda? No, that’ll just paint a target on his back. He’ll always be picked for the spars. He’ll always fight Cardin-

Her mind snaps. She had forgotten about Cardin all this time! He’ll just beat him to a pulp out there!  
  


**NO!!!!!**

So that leaves only one choice: Team RWBY.

Ruby absolutely loves hanging out with him. No way she’ll ever hold it against him.

Yang is something else. She teases him to hell and back, but she never straight-up insults him.

She does that to everyone, but is that really such a bad thing? There’s no way she’ll do anything. She’ll probably just tease him about it, he can take that.

I don’t think Blake has thought about Jaune once since she’s been here. Probably too invested in those “erotic literatures” to pay attention to him. No reason why that won’t continue, right?

Weiss…… She’s gonna fucking hate him even more. But is that really that bad? Jaune will still keep asking her out like he always does and that would achieve the same thing anyway so…

With that decided, Pyrrha finally joins everyone in the lunch area. She goes to the RWBY/JNPR table, and nothing seems wrong! Maybe this will be easier than she thought?

\----Pyrrha POV----

I sit down at the table and study everyone else’s reactions.

It’s a thing I’m good at having to see them for so long.

But Jaune draws my attention instantly. He looks gloomy. **Very gloomy.**

Did he tell them already?

No, because Nora and Ren would be comforting him.

And they aren’t, they are happily eating their food, just like RWBY.

Did he scare them to the point of ignorance?

God I hope not…

Think happy thoughts Pyr, happy thoughts…

He’s probably still sad about the whole Cardin thing. I would be too if I was in-

“Staring at lover boy again?”

“N-n-no!” My slightly stained cheeks betray the weak defense I try to put up.

“Sure seemed like you were staring at him like a piece of meat back there.”

That stain is really coming through now.

Yang starts to chuckle while I can almost feel Weiss’s disapproval staring a hole through my head.

Jaune is like a statue, unchanging… *sigh*

We all eat our food and everyone turns to leave. Jaune waits for me but I wave him off.

“It’s okay Jaune, you go on! I’m just asking RWBY a question about something.”  
He leaves. I swear I saw the tiniest of smiles grace his face… <3

RWBY perks up at their mention. Now just me and them, I just say it to them straight, just like Jaune did with me.

“Jaune forged his transcripts.”  
  


Shock appears on their faces.

Blake reacts first, turning **backward** one page in her book. Uh oh…

After more silence, Weiss pipes up next.

“Figures.”

…

“Son of a bitch, I didn’t think he had it in him!”

Ruby’s expression is unreadable, but she’s clearly conflicted like I was last night.

“ _ **Was this a mistake?!”**_ my mind instinctively bellows. But I beat that down. Can’t be too hasty…

“What should I do?”

WBY seem to be having a silent conversation. After some “interesting” expressions pass on their face, they seem to come to an agreement.

Ruby’s face still looks distraught though… God I feel for her…

“Tell Ozpin.”

“What?!?!” I say before thinking.

“He’s gonna get destroyed out there.” They all continue.

“Why?”

“For starters, he’s slow, weak, unskilled, and naïve. If he stays here he will almost certainly fail due to poor performance. Even my money can’t save him then.”

“Vomit Boy is absolutely screwed if he stays here! Can you imagine him trying to fight a big ass Grimm?! His noodle arms will break!”

“He’s not fit to be here. He’ll disappoint you and the team like he has been with your romantic advances.”

That perceptive little cat.

Ruby stands up and speeds away from the table. She’s clearly trying to hold back tears. But no one, not even Yang, moves to comfort her.

Yang’s eyes turn red. “I might just take VB out mysel-”  
  


I put my arm out to hold her back from terrorizing him. Luckily she relents and the color drains from her eyes. Wouldn’t want to deal with that one…

“See? Look what he does to people. He has been more of a nuisance than anything. You better get him expelled. I don’t know how many more cringy flirting attempts I can take.”  
  


No one denies that one.

I’m still conflicted, but the logic part of my brain is really winning out here. Jaune is really out of his depth here. And I really don’t wanna see Cardin smash his face in. But I can’t bring myself to do it to him…

Blake pipes up with the sealing quote; “You know what they say, if you love someone, set them free. Maybe he’ll come back for you stronger than ever!”

That perceptive little cat.

I do love him though. This has to be what is best for him, I just know it!

He’ll get expelled, and he’ll train on his own and come back better!

And faster!

And more confident!

**And he’ll finally notice me!**

I break out into a smile at that. WBY notices and a smile appears on their faces in turn.

“I’ll go tell Ozpin after class.”

“Good luck with that. Hope he gets as broken as possible. Gotta hit rock bottom to rise back up!”

Normally Yang saying that would ring alarm bells, but I’m too focused in my clarity and newfound happiness to pay attention. Now to wait for the end of classes…


	2. (Oz)Pinned

**Beacon Academy**

**3:30 PM**

\----Pyrrha POV----

*ringringringringringringringringringring*

Classes are over! It’s finally time…

RWBY is back together now. I look over at them for one last jolt of confidence. They all smile at me.

“For the good of the world!” Ruby adds. Glad to see she dealt with her feelings.

With Miló and Akoúo strapped on my back, I turn to go.

I see Jaune with a real, full-on smile on his face for the first time in quite a while.

Just for a second, my heart twitches and I almost turn back, but I crush it.

**That smile was never directed at me anyway.**

I quicken my pace as I exit the lecture hall and move towards Ozpin’s office.

I turn a corner and- is that the end of a rapier I see? I stop for a second but it is gone in a flash.

Probably Weiss going shopping again…

I finally finish the climb up there and enter his office.

It is really plain, all things considered. The papers on his desk easily stands over one foot tall, and the grayness makes the atmosphere dark and dreary, just like the rest of this academy.

Why is it so dark here? It was never this way back in Mistral…

I sit down in the one available chair. It takes an absurd amount of time for Ozpin to notice me, as I watched that stack of papers whittle down to a few measly sheets.

“Sorry about that. What are you here for?”

“I have to tell you something.”

“What is it?”  
  


It takes a bit for me to get the words out. **Where is this hesitation coming from?**

“Jaune forged his transcripts.”

A look of shock is on his face. His eyebrows then slope downwards as it seems to turn into anger.

“I will get this resolved. Thank you Pyrrha.”

“You’re welcome. Sorry for bothering you.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. It was for a good reason so I pay no mind.”

A smile is on my face now. I made the right decision.

I leave the office to go back to the JNPR dorm. Soon it will probably just be NPR. A small price to pay…

As I go inside and close the door, I don’t notice the four sets of feet rushing by behind me…

\----Ozpin POV----

The instant that door closes, I break into a smile.

_I knew about his transcripts._

It was so obvious. Who the hell would be fooled by someone listing “Flare Academy” as their combat school?

And seeing him try swordplay? Even someone with mild training would do better than that.

I give a nice hearty chuckle to myself.

But I accepted him for a reason. With his large aura reserves and incredible tactical ability, he is one of the best candidates to come through this academy in a very long time.

And I can see it in his eyes too, that determination.

**There’s nothing that will stop him.**

So what to do with him then? No way will I expel him out of the academy.

But I also can’t keep the status quo.

If I keep him on his team, the team chemistry will explode. No way Pyrrha will help him now.

And then there’s RWBY…

I turn on one of the monitors nearby and flip it over to Camera 2, the camera that is in a hallway outside the office.

This camera shows all four members, talking amongst themselves and giggling like happy little babies.

I can even hear their conversations…

“It’ll be so good to not have him in our hair anymore.”

“Hell yeah! Now I can find someone with an even cooler weapon!”  
“Now I can finally tease a real hunk of meat!”

“No more fucking serenades, thank the Oum above!”

“No more awkward conversations!”

“Now I can finally connect to Pyrrha with him out of the way!”

And on and on it goes, naming every possible way their lives are better without him.

This could be a little problem. They are the most dangerous first-year team. By a lot.

Keeping him here, as a team leader, with a team that shows no confidence and a team that is indifferent at best to him right next door…

No. Gotta have a new plan.

But nothing good comes to mind. Everywhere has the chance of tipping over the scales and screwing him over even worse. But he is too good to let go.

“...*groan* I don’t have a choice. I have to pick something.”  
  


After much deliberation, he decides to split him off from his team and have him train up on his own.

This is the best he can really do. Give Jaune just a pinch of motivation and…

With his mind set, Ozpin starts his plan. He leans into the mic and yells as loud as he can;

“ **JAUNE ARC TO THE HEADMASTER’S OFFICE!”**

\----Jaune POV----

This entire day has been one hell of a roller coaster ride.

I was having fun today, joking with Yang, looking at Ruby’s endless variety of weapon doodles and hanging out like always, but then after breakfast Pyrrha just seemed kinda… distant. Like I had done something to her...

And then lunch and I can barely even glimpse at her face! This is madness!

I would never want to make her sad. And then she just left somewhere without me and the rest of the team?

Pyrrha would never avoid me like this!

I gotta talk to her.

As if on cue, Pyrrha enters through the door looking happier than a kid in a candy store.

Yesss! This will be easy!

“What’s up Pyr?!”

“N-Nothing! Just had a good sparring match!”  
“Nice! Wanna train?”

“...I’m too tired.”

“Alright then… how about we go to the weapons store?”  
“No. I need some time to myself.”

I deflate like a bounce house with a puncture in it. Even Ren and Nora notice and look in our direction.

Ren speaks up. “Maybe you should just go to the training arenas Jaune. Pyrrha wouldn’t want you to just mope around all day.”

“You’re right! Thanks Ren!” I dash out the door with renewed energy and head toward the training arena.

“Maybe I can take out a Level 3 bot today!”

\----*----

Ren, master of emotions, realizes something is up. He sends Nora out on a special task to get her out for a while.

“Hey Nora, did you know the world’s largest pancake is in Vale?”

“REALLY!!! REN PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE-”

“You gotta go find it! Here’s some money.”

Ren hands her about 3000 lien.

“Good luck!”  
She’s gone faster than you can shout Maple Syrup!

“Alright Pyrrha. Tell me what’s up.”

She is deadly silent.

“You can tell me. I won’t get mad.”

Still silent.

“Please Pyr, you have to-”

“I just expelled Jaune from Beacon.”

“ **YOU WHAT!?** ”

\----Jaune POV---

*clink* *clink*

I’m fighting three level 2’s at once, the final test before I get promoted to Level 3.

The robot tries to attack from the side, but I dive out of the way.

I put my sword up to block a frontal attack, and try to use my shield to cut off its arm.

It… Works! One is down!

I never usually get that to work!  
  


But while I’m distracted, I get knocked back by a stab.

With my aura in the yellow, I have to take risks!  
  


I see them both dive for my legs. I have to jump pretty high up to avoid them, so much that I use Crocea Mors to plant myself down.

They run into the wall! They’re regrouping, now’s my chance!

I turn my shield sideways and ram it into them both with all my strength!

They get squashed like a bug! I finally did it!

“ _Level 2 Passed. Begin Level 3?_ ”

But I have to pace myself. My aura is low, and frankly, I’m tired as hell.

So I quit out of the simulation. The walls evaporate and I walk out of the arena.

What to do next?

Maybe go to the cafeteria? I hear that there is a brand new cake today…

I know! The weapons shopping from earlier!

I’ll ask Ruby to go with me! It’ll be so much fun looking at all the ammo and thinking of new weapons and…

I dial her number in my scroll and call.

*ringring* *ring-BEEEEEP*

It hangs up fast. Unnaturally fast. Is she off sparring?

I check the training arenas for her distinctive red color and find nothing.

*sigh* Life just gets better and better, doesn’t it..

*ping*

Grimm Wars 2 is out! NICE! I gotta go get it now!

I rush out the library, heading on my way to Jupiter Torchwick’s Game Emporium. They have to have it there!

On my way by, I pass by both the dorms. Is that… club music coming from RWBY’s side? Damn, Yang must really miss the partying after she got banned from Junior’s a while back…

I continue my quest, passing through the library at a surprising speed.

There’s Blake again, stuck in her books.

But then I see a lock of pink- wait REN?! What is he doing there?

He’s meditating really, really hard… what did Nora do this time?

Is it another syrup incident?

Whatever. Time to go!

I groove on by, faster and faster, the door is in my sights and-

“ **JAUNE ARC TO THE HEADMASTER’S OFFICE!”**

**A** **HHHHH! MY EARS!**

And my thoughts are gone too! What was I thinking about?

Oh well, gotta go see what the headmaster wants.. probably to talk to me about my poor History grades...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Ozpin/Jaune scene was going to be here, but I want to keep chapter sizes somewhere between 1500-2000 words so I cut it off. In the next chapter it will be in along with some “fun” content.


	3. BeaconQuake

\----*----

Jaune Arc walks to Ozpin’s office very, very nervously. That “binoculars” answer really must have been bad to have Ozpin of all people yelling at him…

“Nice of you to arrive here Jau-”

“I promise I’ll pay more attention to Doctor Oobleck! Please don’t punish me!”

Ozpin smiles. “You and I both know you can’t do that. Even Pyrrha falls asleep there from time to time. But that’s not why I called you here.”

Jaune seems to have crashed at this comment and does not move. Eventually he recovers. “What is it?”

“I know about your transcripts.”

Ok I lied, Jaune has **REALLY** crashed now. His mouth is stuck open like a door being hit by wind.

His life is flashing before his eyes.

All of his sisters are looking at him with the most poutiest faces, his dad giving a disappointed look, holding his hand out for Crocea Mors…

Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, and all of RWBY with gloomy expressions as they watch him walk onto the bullhead for the last time…

It hurts him too much.

“Please Ozpin, don’t expel me… I can’t go back to my family… I want to be a hero…”

“Not to worry Jaune, I won’t expel you.”  
  


It seems as if time had instantly reversed, as his emotions are back to normal. “You won’t?!”

“Of course not. If I wanted to kick you out for your transcripts you would have never made it to initiation.”  
  


That’s… disturbing. But now a question burrows to the front of his mind, one he just HAS to ask.

“Why didn’t you kick me out then?”  
  


“Because I took a gamble. Some of my best hunters have been ones that looked undeserving at first glance.”

You might as well have had a neon sign saying that pointing to Jaune’s head. After a few seconds, Ozpin continues;

“And I took a chance on you too Jaune. And the initiation proved that I made the right call.”

Even Jaune can not deny that he was a good leader back there.

He recognizes how rare a praising comment like that from the headmaster is.

Jaune is now beaming, even happier than when he tried his first motion sickness pill!

“Thanks Ozpin! That means a lot to me. Is that why I’m here?”

“Unfortunately no…”  
  


That beam is gone. But he is still obviously happy.

“Why then?”

Ozpin clears his throat.

And then he clears his throat again.

“Because I am kicking you off team JNPR.”

“What?! Why?”

“You need to train quickly to get up to par with the other first-years. All the motivation in the world can not make up for physical deficiencies, as I’m sure you know.”

“But why lose the team? They want to help me!”

“They already have enough on their plates. You need to progress faster.”

“And how will I do that with no team!!”

Ozpin’s starting to run out of lies now.

“The Beacon staff will help you. You will get all the money you need for any training supplies. And a new weapon. I strongly suggest you get a new weapon soon.”

Jaune finally begins to understand that Ozpin is not trying to screw him over. He returns to his beaming mood again.

Hang out with friends, and get special training to catch up and prove his worth to them! HELL YES!

“When do I start?”

“Tomorrow. Most of your classes except for History and Sparring will be canceled for now. You will start at the training arena at 8 AM.”

“Thank you so much Ozpin!”

“No, thank you for being at this academy. You will make a fine huntsman one day. Now go get some rest, you’ll need it.”

He runs off out of the office happy as can be.

“God it hurt so much to lie to him…”

But what else could he do?

There’s no way to say “I’m transferring you out so RWBY and NPR don’t mentally and physically destroy you” to Jaune…

And now he’s gotta set up this whole training regimen in less than a day…

A light bulb activates in his head.

Have CFVY train him! At least he knows some people on that team. And Velvet’s copying semblance will really come in handy…

This will be a great success!

\----Jaune POV----

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

That’s pretty much my entire thoughts right now.

Gonna train tomorrow, not gotta get disowned by my family, gonna prove to everyone I’m actually worth being here… Life is great!

(A/N: Life will soon not be great)

I even got the Grimm Wars 2 board game today! Everything is coming up Jaune!

I head on up to the dorm and unlock the door. I come in and Ren is there.

Just Ren. No Nora.

“Where’d Nora go?”

“Pancakes.”

“Typical. What about Pyrrha?”

“She went out somewhere. Wouldn’t tell me where she went.”

“That sucks… never mind her for right now. Ozpin’s training me!”

“He’s what?” A small twitch appears in Ren’s eye.

“He’s training me! Said that I will be kicked off the team but I’ll get special help from Ozpin! And all the money I need! It’s gonna be great!”

Jaune opens the game and begins to set it up. It’s real complicated too, so it’s gonna take a while.  
  


“I’m sure it will be Jaune…” Ren is struggling to keep his cool right now.

Especially because of what he had to sit through…

_**2 hours earlier…** _

“I just expelled Jaune from Beacon.”

“ **YOU WHAT!?** ”

“He told me about his transcripts, and I told Ozpin. It’s for the best Ren!”  
  


“What do you mean it’s for the best?!”

“You know him! He’ll die out there! **Our team will die out there!** ”

“Why aren’t you helping him then?”

“I can’t! He had no training! It will take so long to help him, it’s just not worth it!”

“Is this really the path you had to take?”

“It was either this or Ozpin kicks him out for poor performance. Trust me, I didn’t want to do this!”

“You sure looked like you did when you were walking to his office!”

“SHUT UP REN! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR YOU RIGHT NOW!”

Realizing this game was not winnable, Ren chose not to play. He went into the library to meditate. Blake joined him shortly afterward with her books, but for an entirely different reason…

“What are you here for?”

“Had a fight with my team. How about you?”

“I guess you could say that.”

_**Meanwhile, at Junior’s Club…** _

The club is better than ever! Thanks to Hei Xiong’s “connections”, it was fixed less than a month after that yellow devil went through! And better yet, it has an all-new dance floor! Equipped with the latest in flashing light technology, this bar reaches new levels of electronic dazzlement!

And let’s not forget the bar! With 12 new top-of-the-line aura-infused bar stools from the Schnee Dust Company, bar fights are no more! With one press of a button, an automatic glue sticks them to their seat! **Drink spiking** and bar fights are no more! The profit potential is endless!

And in the center five seats of this bar are 5 beautiful huntresses.

They’re celebrating after Jaune’s assumed expulsion, with shots in everyone’s hand! Even Ruby gets to have one, as Yang decided to make an exception to her usual hovering for this special moment.

“To the death of JNPR!” Blake yells!

“To the death of JNPR!”

“To the end of the serenades!” Weiss yells!

“To the end of the serenades!”

“To the end of the awkwardness!” Yang yells!

“To the end of the awkwardness!”  
  


“To the end of a shitty weapon!” Ruby yells!

“T-to the end of a shitty weapon…”

The build-up is massive as Pyrrha says the killing line:

“ **To the dawn of a new destiny!”**

“ **To the dawn of a new destiny!”**

All the shot glasses clink together, and are swallowed down.

Weiss and Yang go off to find some hot guys to have fun with, while Ruby, Pyrrha and Blake stay at the bar. Blake immediately goes into another “erotic literature”, although she is eyeing the crowd for some juicy targets who happen to bear some resemblance…

Ruby and Pyrrha are talking about various things, including Beacon, weapons, and, of course, the end of Jaune.

“I can’t believe that your scythe can do that!”

“Isn’t it just the coolest! It’s just amazing at shredding Grimm!

My favorite part is where the blade can rotate and out pops a...”

*ping*

Pyrrha’s scroll goes off. Ruby’s so engrossed in her weapons conversation that she has no chance of noticing her checking her scroll.

_One (1) message from Ren_

She opens it…

“Jaune came back. He’s not going to be on the team anymore, but he’s not being expelled! He’s being trained by Ozpin too.”

...

...

*rumble rumble rumble rumble **rumble rumble rumble** *

The bar stool begins to shake violently. TV’s begin to creak.

Hei can see what is happening but is too late to activate the stool as the button snaps over to the enraged huntress.

Now the TV’s have shattered. The disco ball is beginning to sway.

Yang’s Ember Celica pulls her away from a boy she was chatting up.

The same things happen to Weiss and Blake thanks to their weapons.

Ruby saw this early and magnetized to her almost instantly.

Pyrrha stands and turns to leave, taking all of the bar stools, several lights, RWBY, and almost even the disco ball with her.

Melanie, Miltiades, and Junior are all cowering in a corner as they watch this display of pure anger.

“Well there goes the fucking bar again...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t write relationships worth a damn, because this chapter is a PERFECT Ruby/Pyrrha setup. Hell maybe even Ren/Blake if people do that. If this ever gets “remastered” (or whatever the proper term is) by someone else, this better be one of the changes. But not on my end.
> 
> About the update schedule, I will try to commit to at least two chapters a week, but motivation is fleeting and I have a procrastination problem so no guarantees.


	4. The Tsunami Begins!

\----*----

There’s too much attached to her right now. All these panels and knobs and weapons…

But **holy fuck!** This is not how things were supposed to end.

He was supposed to be gone and that was that, but no! Now’s he’s stuck here!

Constantly reminding me of my crush, of my mistakes, of everything!

And he’s getting special treatment?! What is the headmaster thinking!

The magnetism explodes in a final burst of anger. Everything is flying outwards now, some pieces going several hundred feet away, hitting cars, buildings, and even people. RWBY are knocked back several feet into some trees.

A symphony of shattering windows breaks the post-explosion silence.

An audible squelch is heard, as some shrapnel goes straight through an unfortunately placed stack of pancakes bought by a certain pink-haired girl.

But Pyrrha, in her fit of rage, doesn’t notice any of this.

“I’m tired of dealing with this shit!”  
  


She bolts off in the direction of the Emerald Forest, looking for a more “productive” use of that anger…

\----Jaune POV----

Welcome to an epic dogfight for the ages!

I’m team Vale and Ren is team Mistral.

This shit is awesome! We’re both racing to see who can clear out the most Grimm from Mountain Glenn. And I’m winning!

Jaune’s character then gets clawed by a Beowulf and dies.

“God Dammit!”

Ren is stoic as always. He’s only got a 9mm pistol but he’s just wrecking them with the most precise shooting I have ever seen.

Now I’ve respawned! Fuck yeah! Time to show everyone how it’s done!

I go behind one of the buildings and surveil the area. Oh shit! Two beowolves right around the corner! I take out my sword and cut through the wall AND through both their necks.

Got a four kill lead!

But that evaporates as Ren, on the roof of a former hospital, fires an absolutely PERFECT shot, going through 4 different types of Grimm, head-shotting them all.

Truly, he is an impressionist.

I look for a spot to use my grenade, and I notice a choke point right at the entrance of the police building. Must be something good there because the Grimm are flooding it!

I get up on a ledge, throw it down and… BOOM!

15 kills!

Ren looks displeased at that one. I don’t blame him, because I’m just that good!

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

That’s not the game.. that’s my scroll? I thought I turned that off earlier…

I put my character on a rooftop and open my scroll up. Thank god Level 1 doesn’t have any flying Grimm.

**WARNING! AURA LEVELS CRITICAL!!!**

What the fuck?! I tap the notification and the Team Health app, an app that all team leaders have installed to check the team’s general state, opens.

Usually this goes off only during spars, but why is it going off **now**?

The first thing I see is Pyrrha’s section flashing an uncomfortable shade of red.

My heart drops. She got attacked, didn’t she!

“Ren pleasepleaseplease look at this! Pleasepleaseplease!”

If Jaune is acting like Nora, something is **really** wrong. He stops taking advantage of Jaune’s distractions and pauses the game.

“What is it?”

I turn the screen to him. I can see his eyes turn into fear in real time.

Uh oh…

“Jaune you need to go find her! **NOW!** ” Ren lobs me Crocea Mors so hard it hurts my chest. I drop my scroll and head off at light speed, desperately searching for her.

The first place I go is the Emerald Forest. She has to have gotten ambushed there!

“I’m coming for youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

\----*----

Ren picks up Jaune’s scroll, which is miraculously not cracked from being dropped on the floor.

He looks on the screen and confirms, yes, Pyrrha’s aura is at critical levels. 3% to be exact. Just then it ticks up to 4%.

“Good thing she is recovering, but…”

The dot showing her location is headed straight for the Emerald Forest.

She must have gotten angry…

Ren opens up the “Emotional State” section to confirm. And what he finds is something that shakes even him, the master of emotions…

The indicator is a square divided into 4 sections:

Red, representing anger, in the top left,

Yellow, representing happiness, in the top right,

Blue, representing sadness, in the bottom right,

And Green, representing envy, in the bottom left.

Normally it hovers either neutral or slightly happy, with some occasional trips to the other quadrants depending on the person’s mood.

Pyrrha’s chart reads like a 2 year old attempting a coloring book, with the line bouncing between all 4 quadrants haphazardly. And right now?

It’s bouncing between anger and envy. Multiple times a second.

Suddenly his mind snaps, not to Jaune, but to RWBY. What the hell did Pyrrha do to them!  
  


He shoots off a text to them as fast as his fingers can type… and then goes back to the game. He finishes the Grimm off effortlessly. Team Mistral wins 74-54! Man life is good.

_**Back in some tre** **e** **s** **…** _

RWBY are stacked on top of each other in a clearing, drunk off their minds. An assortment of leaves and metal are in a pile three inches thick on top of them.

If it wasn’t for their aura, they would have died in the explosion, but they have only minor scratches.

They are barely awake as it is, with little energy to move.

* **PING** * Ruby’s scroll goes off at max volume. Now fully awake, she shifts out from under the pile, taking the rest of the team down with them.

Weiss, the least drunk of the four, gracefully flutters down using her glyphs. The rest are not so lucky, tumbling down hard onto the dirt, groaning in general annoyance.

Ruby turns on her scroll and sees the following message from Ren:

“ _Pyrrha has gone off the rails! Are you guys okay?!_ ”

“Haha Pyrrha is a train! Choo Choo! All aboard! Hahahaha!”

Weiss snatches the scroll from her hand and reads the message.

She calls Ren, who picks up immediately.

“Where is she?”

“Heading for the Emerald Forest.”

“Are you sure she isn’t just drunk?! Why did you text Ruby about this!”

“Her emotional state is a mess and her Aura is low. You need to make sure she doesn’t get herself killed fighting Grimm!”

“Right We’re-

“Mister Conductor! Are you on the Pyrrha train! Gimme some tickets please!”

“What happened to Ruby!”

“Too much to explain right now. I guess we’ll go over there eventually.”

“I need you guys ASAP. Pyrrha’s mad because Jaune didn’t get expelled. You need-” *beep*

After hearing Jaune’s name, Weiss hangs the scroll up. She knows Ozpin can see what’s happening to Pyrrha and has no reason to move. Ozpin will save her if she overextends herself.

Not wanting to think about Jaune, and now assuming the role of team leader due to Ruby’s “condition”, she makes an executive decision…

“Alright team, we gotta go!”

“These muscles are big…”

“Yang, that’s a light bulb. But that’s not the point. We’re going back home.”

“Why?”

“Are we going on the Pyrrha train! YESSSSSS!”

She uses a glyph to shut Ruby up. And puts one on Yang and Blake too for good measure.

She uses yet more glyphs to drag them back behind her, moving slowly toward the dorm. She’s really gonna pay for this tomorrow…

“Why is it always me?!”

\----Jaune POV---

I’m at the forest! I swear I ran faster than Usain Bolt back there.

But I gotta save Pyrrha! With Crocea Mors, and a fresh bout of motivation, the small Grimm stand no match.

Black smoke of the small Beowolves fill the air. I cut down one of the trees and use it to climb up, up, up!

I’m on top of the trees now! I have to be able to see her from here!

...Where is she?! **Where is she!!!!!!**

I look around desperately for that scarlet hair, and find nothing.

There’s not even a clearing! How is this possible!

I jump down from the tree. I catch some branches on the way. Ouch!

But the pain means nothing to me. Not now.

I look through the trees. Hundreds and hundreds of trees.

Not a single hair.

Not a single javelin hole.

Not a single footprint.

**Nothing.**

Where the fuck is she! I do the only thing I can and venture deeper inside the forest. She has to be there!

*rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble* SCREEEEEEEEEE!*

That’s an Ursa Major! I climb some branches and get back on top of a tree, looking through the dense fog.

**And then I see it.**

Hundreds of Grimm are retreating. This has never happened before! Oobleck would love to see this!

Beowolves, Ursas, Boarbatusks, and even a King Taijitu are bolting away!

But why? Just then a spear flies over my head into one of the Taijitu’s head, cutting it clean off. That’s Pyrrha’s spear!

I move toward that direction. The Grimm’s footsteps begin to taper off. They are all gone…

I see the scarlet hair. There’s no mistaking it. She’s right next to me.

“Pyrrha! I found you! Let’s go back to the dorm!”

Why is she putting her shield in the tree? And why does it look like she’s charging up?! And that tree is moving so fucking fa-

A white comet is seen flying far, far away from the Emerald Forest. At 7:30. What the fuck?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know what you’re thinking: What the fuck is going on? What the fuck are you planning?! I’m gonna let you in on a secret… THERE IS NO PLAN! I’m just writing shit in until I get bored or trap myself in a clusterfuck. Toodles!


	5. Run-in with a Dandelion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comet sighted! 
> 
> Peasants are always superstitious, and the appearance of a comet in the sky has caused panic among our people. They are convinced that this is a sign that the end of times is near or that something bad is going to happen in the near future.  
> (It’s an Omen)  
> (The end is nigh!)  
> ->(The economy, fools!)<\- {Lose 1 Stability}

Yatsuhashi is walking home from a poetry slam. Which he won by the way.

A white comet appears in the sky. He sits down to watch it go, impressed by its beauty.

“Truly a blessed day.”

And the comet grows brighter! Clearly the world agrees.

And then it keeps getting brighter. And larger.

His mouth droops open. Just what the fuck is going on?

The “comet” is taking up more and more of the sky with each passing second, blotting out even the streetlights of Vale!

He steps inside a nearby shop for safety. That was a good move as the comet lands merely 20 or so feet away from where he was standing, in a small park area.

He walks up to it. Is it an alien?

The white glow fades. Is that a… human?

“Hello?”

“ungh….”

Jaune can not respond right now for obvious reasons. His mind is only able to utter that one sound before crashing and rendering him knocked out.

Yatsu has no choice. He has to help this guy somehow…

He can’t bring him back to the dorm today though.

It’s “girls night” for Coco and Velvet, and god knows what could be going on over there… he remembers the last time girls night happened and he came to the dorm a little too early…

_**3 nights ago** **…** _

I was walking home from a nice night out in the Beacon Gardens, tending to some flowers.

The flowers were nice.

They shine like beautiful art.

These flowers of mine.

It was 11:30 PM. Coco and Velvet will definitely be asleep by now. Especially with Coco’s bombastic personality…

I stroll up to the door and it is left ajar? Interesting…

Curiosity gets the best of me. I crack open the door just a bit more and…

HOLY TOLEDO! The clothes were piled multiple feet high. A polo shirt here, a wedding dress there, multiple suits on top, a frilly hat on the side…

The picture was impressive, yes, but that is a lot of clothes for just two women…

And to make things even better, a mirror was slotted over to the right.

Velvet was wearing a scantily-clad light yellow dress, with a perfectly flowing bottom half, and nicely fitting black heels…

“See! I told you they would make you look sexy!”

My cheeks went an unnatural shade of deep red and I had to go quickly.

I couldn’t continue watching that!

Continuing to think like that would lead only to madness.

I need to go back to the flowers…

\----*----

He spent the night in the Gardens, without a single thought of a rabbit Faunus clouding his mind, or so he wished…

But Yatsu is not making that mistake again… he comes prepared with Lien to spend the night at a local hotel.

And now he has the new mysterious visitor…

He makes it to the “Mina and Joseph’s Fantastical Faunus-Friendly Hotel” and checks him and a out-of-commision Jaune inside.

“Welcome to the hotel! Room for two?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the occasion?”

“Important huntsman business.”

“Ok sir! Your total is 420 lien! Have a nice stay!”  
  


He sets the money down and goes on in to the room, number 103.

“What do I do now?”

There are no books for this kind of situation.

Yatsu tries the one thing that has worked countless times to make everyone happy; cooking!

He goes to the fridge, which thankfully has some eggs and milk among its few items. He puts the eggs on the skillet and lets the calming sizzle of the eggs reset his mind.

The smell of the omelette brings peace. Taking out some herbs that he conveniently keeps in his pocket, he tops off the dish with some masterfully placed herbs. Gordon Ramsay would be proud of this creation.

He sets it on the couch next to Jaune, and attempts to wake him up.

One nudge… two nudge… three nudge…

“Wake up!”

He doesn’t. Yatsu remembers back to when he was just a baby, where his parents would put food in his mouth to wake him up. Why not try it here?

“Open wide!”

Still no movement. No matter! Drastic times call for drastic measures!  
  


He shoves the omelette in his mouth.

He waits for a while and- there it is, there it is, Jaune’s mouth is moving!!!

“mmmph…” A smile immediately appears on Jaune’s face.

“Damn this omelette is good… who made this?”

“Hi.”

Jaune almost chokes. Who the hell is this tall boy?

Yatsu looks a little scared.

“Am I really that intimidating?”

Jaune quickly shakes his head no and swallows the omelette.

“No way. Not after dealing with seven sisters all my life.”

Seven? This guy is very interesting…

“Do you know where you are?”

“Nope!”

“You are in a hotel. I had to take you in after you fell from the sky. Do you remember why you were falling from the sky?”

Jaune thinks for a while. Does he tell his story to someone he doesn’t know? He decides to gain more information for now.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Yatsuhashi, the 4th member of team CFVY. Who are you?”

“I’m Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR. Well, former leader I guess.”

Jaune Arc? Yatsu’s seen that one before…

He opens up his scroll and looks at his recent messages. Second from the top is the confirmation.

_To Team CFVY,_

_You are being put on a special mission starting tomorrow. At 8AM you will be reporting to the sparring arenas. Look for one blond-haired boy by the name of “Jaune Arc”. He and Glynda will give you further instructions._

_-Headmaster Ozpin_

“Nice to meet you Jaune! I was told that I would be training you tomorrow.”

“Really?!”

“Yes.” He turns the scroll toward Jaune and let him read the message.

A smile breaks out on his face. That’s the first one in almost a full day.

“That sounds awesome! Now I just gotta know, how did you get this omelette to taste so good?!”

“I liked cooking when I was younger. Learned to make all kinds of things, including these omelettes. Oh and pancakes too.”

Somewhere nearby a VWOOOOM!!! sound was heard inside a pancake factory.

“I had to cook a bunch too. No way of not learning it back at the house.”

“I’m sure that’s the case. You told me you had seven sisters earlier?”

“Yep. Taught me all about shopping, hair care, cooking, you name it, I was held against my will helping them.”

Yatsu’s curiosity peaks at that last one. Another cook-master in Beacon?

“How good can you cook?”

“Very. I had to make fucking everything for them. Have anything I can use?”

“I’ll look in the fridge again.”

Yatsu takes a closer look inside the kitchen this time. In the fridge there are some eggs, milk, butter, some carrots, block cheese, and finally a large ham at the bottom. In the cupboards, however, there are all manner of extras, including the normal salt/pepper/paprika, some materials to make various kinds of gravy, some breading, and even vanilla extract?! What is with this hotel?!

Under the oven are just 2 square pans, one skillet, a large baking sheet, and some cooking oil and aluminum foil. This could be very interesting…

“We have some ham and spices. And the basics, but not anything more.”

“Good. I like those kind of challenges.”

“Let’s see what you can do then, chef Jaune.”

“That’s Chef Arc to you, Yatsuhashi.” Jaune then goes to work on cooking something.

He first takes out the ham and cuts it into many small slices, about 3 inches long, and ½ inch wide and thick. They start sizzling on the skillet, releasing all kinds of good aromas.

Then he takes out one of the square pans and sets two pieces of bread in it before dropping it in the oven.

“What are you doing with the bread?”

“Toasting it. We got no toaster so we have to do it differently…”

**While all that is happening,** he boils some water in a pan that was taken from a cupboard that Yatsu forgot to look into, and then takes out a gravy packet, and puts it in, adding precise pinches of pepper into the pan when prompted.

It looks like he has eight arms doing this! This is insane!

As it Oum was intervening, everything gets done at the same time, and the final result, fried ham slices put into a “X” shape with two pieces of toast and some milk are placed on the table.

!!!WARNING! NOT SUITABLE FOR PEOPLE WITH APPETITES!!!

The breakfast aromas from the dish fly through the room, into Yatsu’s nostrils.

“That smells very pleasing. I will try it now.”

He gets a fork and digs in.

“Truly exceptional cooking. You should be a chef somewhere! You would make lots of lien, that is for sure.”

“Thanks Yatsu, I’m glad I can be of service.” Jaune then digs in to the dish as well.

“Damn this is really good. I didn’t think it would turn out THIS well.”

Jaune eats almost all of it extremely fast, leaving Yatsu with just three measly bites. He isn’t mad though.

Not after how he looked when he fell from the sky.

That drags Yatsu’s mind away kicking and screaming from the food paradise, back to the reality of him and Jaune forced to spend the night in a hotel room thanks to an improbable string of events.

“That was an excellent meal, but I need you to answer my question from earlier. What is the last thing you remember?”

Jaune thinks back to the time before the breakfast food. He remembers most all of it, including the Game with Ren and, of course, what happened in the Emerald Forest. He tells the long story to Yatsu with an almost cartoonish level of activity, arms waving around and everything.

“...and that’s basically all I remember before meeting you. Is that good?”

Yatsuhashi can’t process everything, but he gets enough to know the basic plotline. This training is gonna be real damn grueling…

“That is… an experience. I’ll tell you what’s going to happen when we wake up for the training tomorrow. But now it is time for rest.”

Jaune looks at the clock and HOLY SHIT! It’s almost 1 AM!

“When did you pick me up exactly?”

“About 7:50 or so.”

Holy hell, was he really flying for 20 minutes in the air?!

These thoughts and more plague Jaune as he goes to rest in the hotel bed. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day to say the least...


	6. Brick-Laying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me tell you something. The training part was supposed to begin at chapter 3. As you can see, that plan was promptly put into a paper shredder thanks to my fucked-up mind and it’s now chapter 6 and we’re just now getting there.
> 
> Just what did I get myself into?! Don’t ask me where this is going, I don’t know either.

_**In the RWBY dorm** **…** _

Team RWBY plus Pyrrha are finally back in the dorm after a long journey home.

Spent walking, because the bullhead wouldn’t accept the huntress talking about looking for a Pyrrha train and uttering various vaguely sexual interactions with a “Crescent Rose”.

Speaking of that huntress…

\----Yang POV----

This is the biggest fucking mistake ever. I go have fun for **ONE DAY** and everything is fucked. First I can’t jump a hot guy, and now sis is over there dreaming about god knows what! It’s 9 in the morning! We had to skip class because of this!

“Pyrrha pleeeeeeease… let me have a turnnnnnnnnn…” Ruby is pulling Crescent Rose closer to her sleeping body, as if trying to take it away from her, even though Pyrrha is nowhere near either of them right now.

“Pfft! This is hilarious!”

That fucking bitch!

“Pyrrha… How much alcohol did you let her have…?!” I just know my eyes are turning a very bright red.

“Ummmmmmm…… thirty?”

“ **THIRTY WHAT?!??!?!?!”**

“Thirty…. sips?”

“ **I’m gonna fuc-** ” Where’s my bracelets?

“Looking for these?” Pyrrha holds my weapon in her hands.

I look over to Crescent Rose. That’s not gonna be enough to stop Yang! I begin to reach for it and-

“Don’t even think about it. It’s unloaded.”

That motherfucker. Guess I’ll need to bring the big guns…

“WEISS!”

“No, I’m not going to pin her with a glyph and let you punch her. You were the one who said, and I quote this directly: 'Let her have as much as she wants! It’s a celebration about Jaune getting expelled, you know!' I tried to warn you this could happen.”

“ **Why didn’t you stop her from drinking then?!”**

  
“It was funny.”

God this team is truly a nightmare…

“You are all a bunch of fucking idiots!” Blake glares up at me from her book.

“Not you Blake.” She goes right back down with the tiniest of smiles.

I’m going back to the fucking club! Nothing is going to stop me now! Momma Yang is gonna get her hands on a hunk of meat tonight!!!

“I’m going to the club. Fuck all of you.”

“It’s 9 AM.”

“ **I don’t care!** ”

Yang shuts the door behind her and leaves back for Junior’s club. Ruby will get back to Remnant eventually… right?

\----Jaune POV----

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Oh god, it’s 6:30 already?

“augggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

I turn off the alarm and get out of bed. I look to my right and I see a plate filled with breadcrumbs and a empty glass. It all comes back to me…

I look into the common area and see Yatsuhashi still sleeping. He looks so peaceful… but I have to break the peace.

“Yatsuhashi wake up!”

He gradually wakes up, obviously showing signs of tiredness. I really wish I didn’t have to do it to him, but I gotta train!

*yawn* “What time is it?”

“6:30. We gotta get ready and go on the bullhead. And I forgot my motion sickness pills… *sigh*”

“Don’t worry, I will help you.”

Yatsu calls a number on his scroll.

“Hello?”

“Jaune is going to be on the next bullhead. Prepare the bag.”

“Yes sir. Thank you for the warning.”

“No problem.”

“How the hell did you do that?”

“A magician never reveals his secrets…”

\----*----

They make it in time for the 7:00 bullhead, and as expected, the driver hands him a bag.

As they ride back toward Beacon the inevitable happens…

All that good cooking from the night comes right back up. Very sad.

If they weren’t on a bullhead they would kneel down and mourn this tragic moment.

But after some time they arrive at Beacon and arrive at the sparring arena 20 minutes early. Jaune 2.0 already lookin’ good!

And they wait… and wait… and wait…

The minute part of the clock cycles through the 50’s… and still no one shows.

Jaune uses this time to practice his swordplay stances. They’re pretty good for only being at Beacon for a week or two, but they still are far, far, away from even a good first-year, never mind a graduated huntsman.

Yatsu uses this time to think. Just who is this “Jaune” guy anyway? Yes he’s a pleasing person to hang out with but what about him at Beacon? He had never seen or heard of him other than the on the podium after initiation.

He looks through his brain but finds nothing.

Both minds are snapped out of their trances when Professor Goodwitch walks in at 8:00:00.0000 AM sharp. She cracks a smile when she sees Jaune not only here, but doing some basic exercises without even being told!

Not everyone can do that. *cough*Cardin*cough*

But after seeing just Yatsuhashi out of his team, that smile fades.

“Do you know where the rest of your team is Yatsuhashi?”

“No ma’am.”

“How unfortunate they are not here. But that is no matter. You both have your weapons, correct?”

“Yes Ma’am.” They both say. Jaune unsheathes Crocea Mors, while Yatsu pulls out his own weapon, Fulcrum.

“Yatsuhashi, hand me your weapon.” Jaune raises his eyebrows as Yatsuhashi gives up his weapon. His eyebrows jump past his forehead and hide in his blond hair as Goodwitch lathers his fists with red paint.

“The first thing we will do is test your reaction time. Luckily Yatsuhashi here is decently fast so this will be a good trial run. All you need to do is try to either block or avoid the hits from him as best you can. No offense for now. Got it?”

Jaune nods as he and Yatsuhashi step into the training ring and get into their respective battle stances.

“Begin!”

Jaune blocks the first punch with his shield, but he can not raise his shield up more in time for the second fist. After that the “battle” devolves into Jaune basically flailing his sword and shield around while Yatsu throws punch after punch.

Some get blocked, and anyone watching could see Jaune’s brain attempting to predict where he will go relatively well, but it is simply not fast enough. Around half of his punches connect. After one minute, Goodwitch calls time and takes them out of the arena.

Jaune is painted red with various fist-shaped prints on all parts of his body.

“You did better than I expected, but clearly you need major work. I saw no attempt to hold your shield out to block punches, and there was very little strategy in terms of avoidance. I did notice you lift your arm to avoid one, but that was the extent of it.”

“However, your prediction skills were above average. I can see the strategy that you showed in initiation coming out here. You have a long way to go, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, Mr. Arc.”

Jaune beams at this praise.

“Don’t be too hasty over there, we still have over an hour left to go!”

That beaming, surprisingly, still remains. He really, really wants this.

“The next test is for terrain mapping. Yatsuhashi will stand at the other end of the arena and your job is to get to him as fast as possible.”

She puts them back into the arena, this time with Jaune on one end and Yatsuhashi directly opposite. One hand is placed on a button.

“Begin!”

She presses the button. All of a sudden the ground shifts with jagged peaks and edges lining the surface. Jaune can only see 2 feet in front of him as a wall block his path. He immediately moves sideways and trips over a rock.

He jumps over a branch and attempts to get on the wall but fails once. He tries again and makes it, now scanning the area.

He sees Yatsuhashi in a small clear area in the corner. He bolts immediately down in that direction and gets twisted by a rock formation.

That one hurts.

“Ow!” Goodwitch winces as he fell into the easy trap.

With his bad aura control he struggles to his feet and limps over in that direction. He doesn’t trip anymore getting through to him after several minutes, but that’s not really a good thing moving at ¼ the speed.

Goodwitch has few praises for this one.

“It was a good idea to climb the wall immediately to search quicker, but everything after that was a horrible showing. You would have been easy Grimm prey if you had done that in a real situation. Failing grade, Mister Arc!”

She has no choice but to give a 30 minute rest for Jaune to let him recover. During this time she takes his weapons.

Jaune stares out the window to the arenas. He sees Yang storm out of the RWBY dorm. Why is she so mad?

Yatsu gets to sit and watch for this last one.

“The last one for today is the simplest one. Hit the blue dummy that is somewhere on this map. Close your eyes please!”

Jaune closes his eyes. A different button is pressed and various movements happen in the arena. Yatsu is absolutely floored at what he is seeing, and Jaune will soon know why…

“Open your eyes!”

He opens it and.. wait a minute! This is the JNPR dorm room!

“What the hell is this!”

“Hunters have to fight in areas they have visited before, not just out in Grimm-controlled regions. You need to make the best of what you have. Begin!”  
  


Jaune looks for something, anything he can use. There are few objects in here, but one of them is a nicely-sized rock. He leaves the room and looks to his left and-

**THE BLUE TRAINING DUMMY!!!**

He runs up and smashes it! The challenge is over in less than a minute!

But Goodwitch is not pleased.

Jaune looks over with a confused expression.

“You need to multitask, Mr. Arc. If that was a Grimm you would have been trapped in the room. Another point against you is that you ran up to the Grimm instead of throwing the rock. You could have been hit by fire breath or another attack by getting too close. Failing grade!”

Jaune sighs as the training ends. How bad will this be?!

“Do not be sad, Mr. Arc. You did very well for someone who has as little skill as you coming in here. Remember, even people like RWBY were once as unskilled as you. Now as your reward, have your first package of Lien!”

Goodwitch gives him a box. He opens the box and sees 1000 Lien!

“YES!”

“Be wise with it! Remember what Ozpin said about a new weapon!”

Jaune, however, did not hear that and left the arenas to go buy the new Grimm Wars 2 DLC.

Goodwitch is still displeased. “...*sigh* This is going to be a long, long month...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do you like the training stuff I came up with? I wasn’t looking to forward to thinking/writing it but it came out much easier than I thought it would.


	7. Whirlwind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna post twice a day until I catch up. Will probably be a while considering I am on chapter 22 right now.

Jaune is feeling cooler than a cucumber right now. Got some training in, survived Dr. Oobleck without pulling another “binoculars”, got the DLC, life is looking good.

Though RWBY and Pyrrha were not in the class. Wonder why…

But pay no mind to that right now! Time for a quick break to the JNPR dorm!

He walks into the dorm and sees no one. But there is a note on Ren’s bed…

_To anyone who may walk in while I am not here:_

_I am in the library searching for Nora. I sent her on a mission to look after the world’s largest pancake, and it’s been XX hours and she hasn’t returned. Please find me in the library if you have any information._

_-Ren_

\----Jaune POV----

Guess I know where I’m going next! I head down to the library and look for Ren.

But not for long, as he is on the first computer terminal, with hands typing like a madman and multiple books and maps strewn about, almost looking like a conspiracy theorist at this point.

“Hey Ren, I saw your note. Lemme see if that Team Health app still works…”

Jaune checks the app, and lo and behold, it does! Although it does say will be deactivated at midnight… that’s a nice change…?

Never mind that. Time to find a Nora.

He checks the locations of the team members…

_Jaune - This is you!_

_Pyrrha - 0.3 miles away_

_Ren - 0.001 cm away_

“Please, gimme some space Ren! I know it’s Nora but gosh!”

“Sorry.”

Refresh…

_Ren - 5 feet away_

_Nora - 352.8 miles away_

“352 miles away! That’s gotta be all the way over in Atlas!” He taps her profile and selects the map and sure enough, she’s in Atlas, somewhere in an unlisted building.

“Probably a pancake factory.” I mutter to myself.

“How the hell did she get over there?!”

“Aren’t you two attached at the hip? Hasn’t she been updating you on all of this?”

“Not helpfully! Every time I ask ‘ _Where are you?’_ the only reply I get is _‘_ _L_ _ooking for the world’s largest pancake!’_ ”

“Pfft! That’s so Nora.”

“That’s the problem! I’m gonna go find her!”

And Ren is gone. Now not a single member from either team is here to hang out with me! What the hell do I do now?

I decide to take over the terminal that Ren left behind. Holy hell there’s a lot of lines on that map. And almost 50 tabs open? Nora must really have a hold on him…

Time to eschew all that and play Grimm Wars 2 on a big screen!

\------

\----*----

After being fawned over like the most cutest gift-wrapped little baby, Ruby Rose has FINALLY returned to Remnant.

“...uggh!” She stretches her arms out. WBP are all staring at her.

“Nice of you to join us.”

“What happened?”

Weiss snorts involuntarily. Blake has no choice but to fill her in.

It takes quite a bit of time for this one… but after it is over, Ruby looks displeased.

“Who let me drink that muc-” “ **YANG!!** ” the rest loudly exclaim to avoid suspicion.

It seems to work as Ruby just sighs loudly, wishing she didn’t cause that much trouble for the team.

Since classes are almost over, they all decide to just take the rest of the day off.

Pyrrha breaks the silence. “Glad that’s over. So what do we do about Jaune?”

“Do we really have to?”

“Yes, we have to. He’s not getting expelled. Any ideas as to how to get him to ‘resign’?”

Weiss perks up at the language being used. Now this is how the ice princess likes it!

“How about I just trap him in a block of ice?”

“But he might break out. Then what?”

“More ice.”

“Weiss we are all taking part in this, he is not gonna be your little pet.”

“Harumph!” Did she actually just make that sound? It’s still more than Blake and Ruby have said in the past 10 minutes, however.

“Whatever. You three don’t wanna talk right now. Forever Fall is tomorrow. Let’s think up a plan then.”

Everyone cheers!

\------

Ozpin is back in his office, reviewing the progress of Jaune during Day 1 of the training. Tomorrow is Forever Fall, and he needs to be sure that Jaune will do a good job trying to gather the jar of sap.

“He’s doing great! Glynda is really throwing the book at him early, but I do see the promise!”

But that’s only one small part of the massive, massive list of problems that have been spawned from the transcript situation. One needs to look no further than the Vale newspaper for the first case…

_Hammer-wielding princess lords over Pancake Company!_

_We’re here with the princess herself, Nora Valkyrie, who is just about to be transported to Atlas. Ok Ms. Valkryie, why are you being taken to Atlas?_

“ _Because that’s where they will make the world’s largest pancake! Just for me!”_

_How did you get the company to do that for you?_

“ _Easy! I just threatened them with my hammer and down they went! OOH! That’s my bullhead! Gotta run now. Say hi to Renny for me! Mwah!”_

Ozpin looks up to the included picture, which features Nora holding Magnhild like a baseball bat. The hammer is absolutely drenched in butter and flour. But what piques his interest the most is the three executives looking like they are about to shit their pants.

“What the hell did she do?! Oh no…”

But there’s no time for that. **Yet**.

The second problem is much closer to home, specifically in the form of one clothes-addicted second year, Coco Adel.

_**Team CFVY’s Dorm** _

_**9:30 AM** _

This is the best day of my life!

“Here you are, Miss Adel. Your models are ready.”

I look over and see three beeeeeeeeeeeautiful~ models wearing the same nice dress, one in a passionate scarlet red, one in a snowy white, and one in a watery blue.

“The red one!”

“Ok Miss Adel. Anything else you want today?”

“Yes please, that beautiful shirt over there!” I point to a shirt with a striped pattern, U-shaped neck, and a very short sleeve, almost to the point of being a tank top.

“Right away miss!” The poor, poor clothesboy makes his way over. That is the third one they have had to use after the previous two got heatstroke and almost died.

I look over to the clothes pile on my left. With over 20 shirts already, now I have the perfect shirt for anything! I push a little too hard and it falls over on top of me, messing up my hair a bit.

“Aaah! Quick, someone get this off me!”

Another clothesboy is there to get them off. There’s just one problem though… the feel of the clothes is not gone?

Why is it still there? And why is everything getting blurry? Please don’t tell me this is a dream! No no no no! Don’t drag me out of heeeeeeeeeere……

My eyes flutter open. It’s almost completely black, with just a hint of light purple. It’s the clothes from earlier!

My hands try to brush away all the clothes, but there is just more. It never ends. I keep going and going and going and going and finally! A clearing!

I raise myself up and **OH! MY!** **OUM** **! THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!**

It looks like a war zone. Clothes are absolutely everywhere. All of the floor is covered. I can’t even see the bottom bunks. I look over and see Fox, somehow, on top of all the clothes on the other side, sleeping like a baby. I’m gonna have to ask about that later...

“ACHOO!”

I see some clothes move. **That’s gotta be** -

I race to grab her from under the clothes pile. I completely forgot about her! It’s not that deep where she is, so I grab her arm and easily pull her out.

“Vel! Why are you wearing a parka?!”

“Coco! Why are you wearing lingerie?!”

Am I really wearing- oh shit! I am!

“Do I look good?”

“W-w-w-w- of course you do!” A small blush paints her cheeks and her ears droop.

“Thanks Vel! Do you see my clothes down there?”

Silence.

“I know! There’s in the bathroom! Thank Oum I didn’t let the others convince me not to put some there! Let’s go Vel!”

I grab her arm and lead us to the bathroom. Thank Oum for my strength, as I can head the door crying as it pushes all the clothes aside. The door shuts behind us.

Vel quickly grabs us both of our normal uniforms and we change into them.

“What are we supposed to do now?!”

“Let me see…” Velvet opens her scroll.

“It says ‘Training with Jaune’ at 8 AM.”

8 AM? It’s past 9:30!

“All of us?!”

“Yep. Yatsuhashi’s probably already over there.”

“Bah! He’ll be fine! Yatsu won’t kill him. Help me clean all the clothes up!”

I drag the door open and shove Vel into the clothes pile.

“Well? Clean!”

“Y-y-y-yes ma’am!”

The cleaning took several agonizing hours, folding things up and putting it into a closet which looked way, way too small to fit it all. Yatsu came back from his training/lunch about ¾ of the way in.

“Hey Yatsu! Help me clean this shit!”

. . .

“I need to tend to the flowers real quick.”

“Yatsu please no come back you-” Velvet puts a hand over my mouth.

Meanwhile, on an area of clothes still untouched by the fashionable duo, Fox remains unmoving. He is currently “dreaming” about Oum knows what. But nobody sees the headphones connected to his scroll that is in his pocket.

Or the smile he cracks after hearing about Yatsu’s “plight”.

Even he knows when to stay away from the minigun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Coco flashback section went way longer than expected so I’m cutting it right here. We’ll get to Jaune getting fucked over by RWBYP+ eventually. I promise. Probably.


	8. Scornet Maestro

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

It’s Forever Fall time!

Jaune wakes up in his new solo room, filled with all his decorations. Luckily Goodwitch got his possessions back from the JNPR dorm before midnight, otherwise… yeah that would have been bad.

But Crocea Mors and his scroll are still here. He listens to the message that he had missed while sleeping. It’s from Cardin.

“Get me some Rapier Wasps bitch boy. They are about one inch long and are black and yellow. Just like your-” Jaune’s not letting that one finish.

He gets dressed and opens the door to see a box about 8 inches tall and 1 foot wide. A note is stuck on the top.

_Put them in here, bitch boy._

_-With love, Cardin_

Jesus that guy is a piece of work. But Jaune realizes something, something that he really should have realized the instant he woke up…

**He has no power over me!**

Since Ozpin apparently figured the transcripts out, so what if he lets out the “secret”? It won’t matter, Ozpin’s not gonna do anything!

But what about  my friends though? Speaking of them, they really have changed, haven’t they…

Nora and Ren are out doing something… pancake related, I’m sure.

Pyrrha is… Jesus Christ what is she? She hasn’t talked to me once in the past two days! Same with R uby, Weiss, and Blake !

I tried to talk to Weiss yesterday, not even to serenade her, and she just gave me the most hateful, disgusting look I have ever seen anyone give. And even after I backed away she just continued to stare at me like that with those eyes, staring me down like I was some creep!

Ruby and Blake just gave me the same damn look! Why?! What have I done to them?

This sucks. But I can’t dwell on that now. I have to think about Forever Fall!

And there I can one-up Cardin! YEAH! Screw him!

He sets down the box and goes to get a quick breakfast.  All of Team RWBY and Pyrrha are there this time, with Ruby and Yang talking about something.

He thinks of sitting down with them, but Pyrrha’s death glare scares him into thinking otherwise. He sits down in an empty area nearby, but still within earshot of the conversation.

“So where were you yesterday sis! You were gone all day!”

“Out.”

“Doing what?”

“Things.”

“Wha?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“I’m 15! You even let me drink! C’mon Yang, I can handle it!”

“That was me being dumb. And no, you can’t.”

Ruby starts pouting like a sweet little puppy, but Yang’s 15 years of experience with that kind of thing has her hardened to the look.

“Not happening sis. Now finish eating your food. Gotta grow big and strong!”

“YAAAANG!”

But she starts eating regardless. He looks over to Blake and Weiss, both giving her sympathetic looks.

Jaune laughs to himself, but that isn’t enough to distract from the soul-crushing loneliness that is starting to creep in. Why are they shutting me out?!

He tries to think happy thoughts. That meal with Yatsu was pretty good… **that’s it!**

He takes out his scroll and dials Yatsu’s number. Please be awake!

*ring ring ring* *ring ring ring*

“*yawn* Hello?”

“Yatsuhashi?”  
“Jaune?! Hello there! What are you calling for?”

“I’m a little lonely right now. My friends don’t want to talk to me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Very unfortunate. You’re going on the Forever Fall trip, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, in like an hour.”

“I wish you good luck on your adventure.”

“Are you not coming Yatsu?”

“No, it’s only for first-year teams. My team went last year. It’s easier than you think it is.”

“That sucks. I’ll get it done though!”

“Yes you will. All you nee-

“YATSU WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO HIM!!!!”

“To Jaune?! Sorry, I have to take care of this.”

“YES JAUNE!!! I HEARD FROM-” *click*

“Well fuck...”

Jaune’s mood is soured now. He finishes off his breakfast and slowly returns to his dorm to get some last-minute preparations in.

Scroll “in case of emergencies”? (i.e. playing games when bored) Check.

Crocea Mors? Check.

Stupid box Cardin wants me to carry? Check.

Motion sickness pills? Check.

Everything is ready, it’s time to go!

_**At Forever Fall...** _

\----Jaune POV----

I enter the forest. The first thing I notice is that these trees look really, really plain. The entire thing is absolutely drenched in red. This doesn’t happen in real life!

Who would design a forest that looks like- GGGHHH PPPLLL CK CK CK

Everyone turns to look at me, but turns back around shortly after. I can hear the snickers from here. What the hell caused that?!

We continue walking deeper into the redness, and I’m getting more and more disoriented!

“Alright everyone! Your job is to collect the sap from these trees. Everyone collects one jar each. DO NOT EAT THE SAP!”

Glynda hands all of us tools to punch in the trees for some sap.

I look around and holy shit! I’m still disoriented! This place is fucked up!

But that tree looks nice and thick. It’s sure to have tons of sap!

I stick the pick in and hammer it! But nothing happens.

I give it one big WHACK! and the sap trickles out. Score!

I quickly shove the jar under and wait for it to fill. While I wait, I look around to see what’s going on with everyone else…

Team CRDL is over lazing around, relaxing as always. Cardin looks to be playing a game on his scroll. But then I see some white hair jump. Weiss pulls out her scroll. She looks over to them and ...smiles?

Her and the rest of RWBY have all their sap jars filled up nicely. Of course. Man they are good…

I keep on looking. Weiss looks to be typing. She seems to finish the reply almost instantly. Cardin looks like he’s about to shit his pants! HA!

But that only lasts for a second. Now he’s over there smiling like a kid who outsmarted the teacher!

More typing. Cardin sends another, looking smug as fuck.

All of RWBYP has their scrolls out now. Just what the hell is Cardin planning?

They’re taking all their picks and tools out of the trees and **leaving**?!

Yang looks around in a circle, as if scanning for something. She makes it about halfway and suddenly stops.

Now they fly away like scared little pigeons, taking CRDL with them deeper into the forest. I can’t see any of them now.

Glynda is looking in that direction too, clearly seeing what I was seeing, but she sighs and turns her head away. Probably too tired to do anything.

I look back over to my jar and the jar is overflowing! That must have been longer than I thought…

But no matter! The challenge is done! Now I get to relax!

I sit down next to the tree and curiosity strikes me. I just have to know what that sap tastes like! I take a bte and- DAMN! This sap is good! Why isn’t everyone eating this?

*Ping!* Who’s that from?

_One (1) message from Cardin_

Of course.

_Where’s the box, bitch boy?_

...uggggh. I guess now’s the time to revolt!

I look around for team CRDL, and they are over in a faraway clearing. Their jars are already full too! They’re not normally ones to finish things early like that…

I fill the box full of rocks and broken tree bark, and close the lid.

The walk is slow. And red. My god this forest is really plain.

As I approach, I pick up on the footprints left earlier from RWBYP.

Let’s see where they ran off to...

...Well that’s not helpful. After a short distance they split into 5 different directions. Trying to track them all down would take forever.

Didn’t find anything helpful along the way either, other than a lonely pick with sap leaking down it. Oh well.

“Let’s just get to Cardin.” I whisper to myself.

I hold the box out, trying to imitate it being full as closely as possble. Cardin notices me right away and holds his hand out for the box.

It takes all my willpower to hide the smile trying to worm it’s way onto my face as I hand him the box. This is gonna be so hilarious!

“I knew you wouldn’t do it, bitch boy.”

HAHAHA- wait, **wouldn’t?!**

“What do you mean, wouldn’t?”

“You really think that fooled me?” He shakes the box, revealing the coverup.

My stomach twists into a knot. I knew that wasn’t going to work for long, but that quickly?!

“Ok I didn’t. Now what?”

“Now what? ...Glad you still don’t have a spine, bitch boy.”  
  


Yep, that confidence I had earlier is evaporated… please have this end soon!

“Nothing, eh? Too scared? Well guess what! I have no need for your co-operation anymore.”

“Are you saying..”

“Yep. I told them already. They had some very bad reactions, that’s for sure!”

That’s what Cardin was texting about! Goddammit!

I am stunned into silence. My body quickly replaces that silence with some ragged breathing, as I realize how much I have been played.

“Already about to cry, bitch boy? I haven’t even gotten you beat up yet!”

Wait what? Is RDL gonna beat me up and not him?! That’s even worse! They’re all better than him! I can just feel my body start burning at the thought…

“p-p-please not them… Oum no…”

Now he starts laughing… this really is my personal hell. RDL looks like a coiled spring ready to charge at any moment...

“-HAHAHAHAHA! You got it bitch boy! HAHAHAHAHA!”

RDL un-tenses. But that’s all I get the chance to see.

A jar crashes against my head and I fall to the ground.

All I can see now is the bottoms of the trees combining with the dirt…

Is this really how it’s going to be? Am I really dying to a- OW!

OW! OW! OW! Fucking wasps! Why OW! couldn’t it have been OW! the hit from earlier!

I can’t go out this easy… I have to get help!

My body writhes in pain. I let out one desperate plea!

“ **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”**

\----*----

A piercing yell bellows through the forest. Goodwitch snaps around in that direction. There aren’t supposed to be Ursa here.

She speeds over toward the source of the yell. With the flicks of her crop, the trees bend out of the way. She runs into RWBY, Pyrrha, and CRDL as she approaches the source.

“Help him please! He tripped and got sap all over him! Now there’s wasps everywhere!” Ruby yells, before everyone continues running further away.

She continues on. The clearing opens and she sees a horrible sight.

Jaune is laying on the ground, unconscious. Wasps are all around him, at least 30 buzzing around and stinging him.

With one focused flick, the sap is forced away from him as if being carried by wind. The wasps follow after the sap, now leaving Jaune completely exposed. There are bumps everywhere. She carries him back to the bullhead very, very, **very** carefully. Definitely don’t wanna wake him up before the painkillers are in…

There’s one thing she notices as the bullhead speeds toward Beacon…

Where’s the concern?

Not a single person has even looked at him the entire ride back!

Huntsmen are supposed to show more care than this!

She’s got to talk to Ozpin now…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a while. I wasn’t really sure quite how far I wanted to “swing the pendulum” so to speak. Once I stopped thinking about restrictions (i.e. being reasonable), though, it came to me. And this is not the end of the rope either.


	9. Snowballer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn! 2000 words! And RWBYP isn’t in this one too much! Maybe I am improving… But actually, they were gonna show up again, but, as usual, things ran a little over. Consider yourself lucky.

Glynda is tired.

After using her semblance at least 15 too many times to make sure Jaune was ok, AND having to carry him over a mile to get to the bullhead, AND not getting any help from anyone whatsoever to check on him, she’s just about at the end of her rope.

“And he’s stable?”

“Yes Headmistress. His Aura stopped the poison from causing any lasting damage. It’s a blessing he has so much of it.”

“How long until he wakes?”

“Could be an hour, could be a day. It all depends on how fast he recovers from the shock.”

“Alright. I pray to Oum that he awakens quickly.”

*knock knock knock*

Glynda raises her brow. Who could that be?

The nurse unlocks the door. The new guest steps through the door and- Yatsuhashi?

That’s an interesting person to visit. How did he get here so early? Jaune was only checked into here 45 minutes ago!

“I’m sorry Yatsuhashi, but he’s not allowed to have visitors yet. Please wait until he awakens.”

He looks a little sad, but stays respectful.

“Okay. I hope he gets well soon.”

He puts two things on the table next to Jaune: A small piece of vanilla cake, and a note, then leaves.

A good sign?

Glynda sure thinks so. Maybe Oum is watching over him. Certainly not RWBY, that’s for sure.

Time to go for the next stop on the Glynda Express: Ozpin!

Ozpin is in his office looking through yet more papers.

Glynda opens the door and immediately goes through behind him.

“Please explain why one of my students almost died today!”

“Was it Cardin?”

“Wha- No it was not him! It was Jaune! The one you are training!”

“What happened to him?”

“He almost died getting stung by Rapier Wasps.”

“That’s unfortunate. Do you know why?”

“No! I was really hoping you would know.”

“I wish I did…” He does. He remembers the RWBY scene from earlier.

He was really hoping not to have to go down this path...

Glynda sees his facial expression change to one of discontent.

“You do know, don’t you.”

Ozpin wants to lie. He really, really, really wants to. But it doesn’t work with Glynda.

Her face is getting more and more disgruntled with each passing second…

“...*sigh* I do know.”

“What is it?”

“It’s Team RWBY. It has to be.”

“You are saying that…!”

“It’s the most likely possibility.”

“So what do we do about this?”

“We can’t prove anything right now. There’s no choice but to just kick this down the road and wait. I expect you to train him again tomorrow.”

“You are insane! He can’t do that!”

“Oh but he will. The faster he gets up to speed, the faster this will be over. And the less damage will be done.”

Glynda does not like this one bit, but Ozpin is right. There’s no way Ozpin will let him go, and there is no way to avoid whatever will come. It just has to pass.

They both leave it off there, but the mood has become quite gloomy now...

_**????** _

Jaune is back at home in Arcadia. It’s four years from now, right after he has graduated from Beacon as one of the top huntsmen.

He still has his trusty Crocea Mors, his reliable white armor, and even still has the Pumpkin Pete hoodie, after all this time. Too bad it no longer fits due to his muscular frame.

He even got a girlfriend! Who? Well, it’s obviously Pyrr-

**ERROR 781E1E**

**GIRLFRIEND.HMN HAS BEEN CORRUPTED. REPLACE WITH GENERIC MODEL?**

**Y(es)/N(o) [NOTE: CHOOSING NO WILL LIKELY CAUSE DREAMSCAPE TO CRASH!!!!]**

That’s weird, this never happened in previous versions of this dream!

Uhhhhhhhhhhh, I guess we can do that, sure… [Y]

**REPLACEMENT COMPLETE! REWINDING TO LAST SAFE POSITION…**

He even got a girlfriend! Who? Well, it’s obviously  Moon!

She stands at about 5 foot 7, with shimmering purple hair, dark green eyes,

an interesting off-white complexion,  34B size boobs, equally muscular arms, long, graceful legs… How  descriptive is this thing?

Whatever. She looks beautiful, and Jaune loves her. Let’s just stop questioning  this and carry on...

“Who is thi- son?! I’m so glad you’re back!”

That’s Jaune’s father. He holds his arms out for a hug, but before Jaune can close the gap he is intercepted by a ball of pure happiness.

Then two.

Then three.

Then four.

It becomes a massive pileup at the front door as Jaune can now barely breathe.

Moon uses her strength to drag the sisters away as Jaune finally gets a chance to breathe again.

“Thanks for the save babe.”

“No problem! I’ll always be there for you!”

Another pileup is about to commence, but Moon expertly dives out of the way, leaving all seven sisters in a heap just outside.

Moon starts laughing, but not in a cruel “you suck’ way, more of a “you people are insane and I love it” way. She holds out her hand and helps them all out of the pile.

Saphron flies over to Jaune like a falcon diving towards its prey.

“Who is she?!?!?!?!?!? Please you have to tell me!”

“Yeah please!”

A massive blush dawns over Moon’s face.

Jaune breaks out into a smile, but he realizes Moon seems to have crashed.

Quick, gotta step in!

“Her name is Moon, last name Woot.”

“...What?” Moon is still recovering, so Jaune continues on.

“She got the name from something called “college football”. No idea what that is. But anyway, that’s her! And it’s her birthday today too! She’s 23 now.”

Moon finishes recovering and gives him a pouty look.

“I can’t believe you! You better buy me pizza after this!”

“Don’t worry babe, I ordered some here for you. Now let’s go!”

He intertwines her hand with his and gently pulls her to the couch to sit.

Terra, who was wise enough to stay away from the pile-up earlier, is on another couch.

“You get used to it. The same thing happened when Saphron showed me off for the first time. But I didn’t have the muscles.”

“YOU KNOW YOU LIKED BEING PINNED LIKE THAT!”

“SAPH!!!!” Terra jumps on her and they roll around into a room with the door magically shutting behind them.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Yep. It happens a lot. They’ll be back with us eventually.”

“ **Anyway…** congrats son! Now come give your father a real hug!”

Jaune goes and this time is not intercepted by anyone. The hug lasts for a few seconds and then ends.

“I always knew you would make it! You are a blessing to this family!”

The mom rolls her eyes at that one. She doesn’t have enough fingers or toes to count how many times Jaune’s dad was scared for him during the past four years.

“I’m so happy my Jaune is home!” She hugs Jaune, and after an almost absurd amount of time, releases him and hugs Moon as well.

“Is this family that addicted to hugs?!”

“Yep!” Everyone else in the house says.

“I’m not complaining!” Moon adds on as she almost melts into the hug.

So much so that it takes significant effort to push Moon away.

“So who is this family?” Moon asks.

“Well, I’m Jaune, that’s my dad Gary, mom Lisa, and my sisters, Violet, Talia, Lexi, Taylor, Lily, and Felicity. And of course you’ve seen Saphron and her wife, Terra.”

Just then a MMMMMMMM sound comes from the room those last two are in.

“They’re just fumbling around.” Gary says to prevent more laughter at their expense.

“Your family has such great names! Especially yours. They sure are lovely.”

“Thanks babe. Let me fix you something to go with that pizza.”

“Is it strawberry ice cream? Please be strawberry ice cream!”

Jaune gets up and checks the fridge, but there is no milk. He checks in the freezer and there is no ice cream of any kind, certainly not strawberry. He pouts.

Probably no “fun” with Moon tonight…

He does see a vanilla cake mix though! And it’s milk-free! Redemption!

“No ice cream! But we do have some cake I can make real fast!”

“Do it babe!”

That’s all the encouragement he needs as he whips up the cake mix faster than he chugs a Pumpkin Pete cereal box!

He shoves the cake batter in a pan and closes the oven. This better be good!

Jaune gets no time to relax before the doorbell is rung.

It must be the pizza.

Moon uses her speed to get to the door before Jaune can even move a muscle.

“Pizza for one Jaune Arc?”

“I’ll take it! Babe, throw me the cash!!”

Jaune takes out his wallet and throws a perfect deep ball of 35 lien to Moon, who catches it casually and hands it to the driver.

“Thankyoukeepthechangehaveaniceday!!!” Moon slams the door behind her and sets the three pizza boxes on the table.

Jaune quickly swipes one while she is distracted.

“IS THAT THE PIZZA!” Saphron sticks her head out of the room, clearly “glazed” over like a fresh donut.

“ **I WASN’T READY YET!!!!!!”** A nearly unrecognizable voice screams out.

“Eep!” And just like that, the door is shut again.

“Oum dammit this fucking family.” Gary muses, already tired of this shit.

And then he looks over to the table…

Moon is ravenously diving into the two pizza boxes that remain, eating like a vulture as pepperoni after pepperoni get forced into their untimely death-by-chewing.

“You see why I took this box?”

“Yep…” Both Gary and the sisters say.

Jaune knows 8 measly pieces are not enough for everyone. He has to fight the celestial body herself…

He goes over and whispers in her ear;

“Babe! I’m gonna take some of that pizza for my family. Please don’t be mad.”

“MMMMMMPH!!!” [NOOOOOO!]

“I’m so sorry, but I have to do this…”

He takes the second box away, but not before Moon attempts to drag half of the pizza out of it.

Luckily  she is a little incapacitated right now. Jaune easily wins the battle and delivers the 6/8 uneaten slices to his family, more than enough to satisfy.  Moon on the other hand is “only” left with 10 pieces to eat.

“Thanks Jaune, you are a lifesaver!” Taylor, Violet, and Lexi say before eating a slice.

The rest are still staring at Moon. They can see her seem to slow down in real time as her chewing slows. The pizza slices start to be left half-eaten. She finally collapses into a happy, presumably Italian-themed dream.

Jaune looks over at her. She looks so beautiful like this.  He walks over and sits down next to her, carefully leaning her over onto his shoulder.

He feels a grip on his arm tighten. That’s Moon’s hand, feeling around before landing on a groove in between muscles. A smile appears on her face.

Jaune’s forgotten about everything else at this point. Now it’s just he and Moon.

He puts one of the half-eaten pizza slices up  near her mouth, and then gently taps it against her closed lips. They open up like the gates of heaven and accept the gift.

She swallows it before leaning in even closer with that smile turning into a really bright grin.

Jaune just accepts it. There is no need to distract from this moment.

A camera shutter is heard.  Someone didn’t get that message,  **now did they?** It’s Terra, now out of the room with Saphron right behind her. 

“YOU TWO LOOK SO GODDAMN CUTE TOGETHER!”

The peace is shattered. Moon jumps several inches in her chair. Jaune is frozen in shock.

Moon looks around. She sees the pizza in Jaune’s hand. The handprint in Jaune’s arm. The scroll  sticking out from Terra’s pocket. The rest of the family trying and failing to stifle their laughter. 

Her mind puts it all together…

“YOU RUINED MY ROMANTIC MOMENT!” She jumps toward Terra, who can not bolt away fast enough and gets tackled for a 2 yard loss.

“No one touches my fair lady like that except me!” Saphron attempts to push Moon away, but the muscles win out.

Jaune snaps back to reality after hearing the takedown. He looks and sees the “situation” in the hallway.

“Babe please! Don’t kill her!”

And the chaos spills through the entire house for the rest of the day.

In all of this, a vanilla cake was left forgotten. Good thing Jaune forgot to turn the oven on!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Needed a generic character for the dream, so I stole it from my first fic.  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/29102331/chapters/71438919 (Yes, I self promoted. Sue me.)
> 
> You can probably tell I am in my element making shit up from basically nowhere. But this fic is going surprisingly well for having to fit it in the RWBYsphere. Even if I am reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally pushing it sometimes.


	10. Meanderer

_**Beacon Infirmary** _

_**7:55 PM** _

\----Jaune POV----

*Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!*

I’m in a very nice, happy meadow, with the sun beating down on me.

I am fighting a 1 on 1 battle vs. an enemy, but it’s not a Grimm.

The fight has been fierce! Crocea Mors is bent and the sheath is stuck in shield mode.

My armor has been blown into pieces, most of it scattered on the ground.

OW! Another slash strikes my chest. Just great. Now my clothes are done.

Why couldn’t I be in the earlier dream! It was so nice!

It looks to be building up for a killing blow. Now is my chance!

I have to avoid it. Either I jump over it or I duck beneath it. I have to choose right now. Hope my hunch is correct…

I go low and the punch runs straight through my hair, essentially cutting off several strands. But it still missed me! Time to go!

I turn the shield around and uppercut my enemy with the pointed end. They fall to the ground! Victory is mine!

I hear a crowd cheering my name. And some annoying beeping.

Someone is waving me over. I walk closer. Is that… Ozpin?

I finish my walk. He turns me to the left and a podium appears.

“Congratulations, Jaune!”

I look over the meadow one last time. But then I notice something…

That 1 on 1 battle was not really 1 on 1. Seven bodies are on the ground.

That means this was… a team match? With who?

I look over to the bodies, but can’t make anything out. They are just gray featureless blobs. That beeping is really getting loud!

I push that out of my mind for now and walk on the top of the podium.

The cheering grows! Man this feels amazing!

I relish in my victory. Time to leave and get the next Grimm Wars game!

But that beeping is getting really annoying…

*Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!*

\----*----

A single blond hair begins to flutter.

As the owner of said blond hair begins to awaken from his slumber, something else flutters with this hair.

But it’s not hair.

It’s an IV. Full of painkillers.

“Augh…… what’s making this beeping noise?”

He follows the IV and it leads to, surprise, a medical bag filled with more painkiller juice. But a monitor is next to it.

His eyes focus on that. It has various readings, and right away he can see the familiar heartbeat line. He makes sure that line isn’t flat.

*Beep!*

“Thank Oum…”

The line, thankfully, enters the second dimension of movement. He sees the heart rate number on the side, reading 80 BPM. Good…

And other than the IV and a bandage around the left side of his head, there isn’t any other medical stuff around him.

“I’ll be sure to be released tomorrow!”

He looks at the clock on the wall. That minute hand is mighty close to the 12, and the hour hand is pointing directly to the 8.

‘I’ve been out that long? Man I sure wish I had food right about now…”

He thinks back to that nice dream from earlier. He remembers the pizza. Man that was good, even though he only got to eat not even ¼ of a piece. And that cake would have been so good too…

He sighs, wishing the cake would just magically pop up out of the dream for him.

Then he sees it.

“Wait a minute.. is that?”

“ **THE CAKE!** ”

He uses his free arm to reach over for the plate. The fingertips touching the edge of that hard plastic is music to his ears. As he bends around to grab a fork, his hand brushes against some paper.

He takes a quick look at it, which is sideways, but luckily still readable.

_To: Jaune_

_From: Yatsuhashi_

_P.S. I hope you like the cake!_

He made this cake?! Hell yeah, this is gonna be amazing!

And oh boy was it! The vanilla frosting is a perfect consistency, and the flavoring is just exceptional! It gets downed at lightning speed thanks to Jaune’s insane appetite.

Before we know it, it’s all gone. Jaune looks extremely sad as he comes to the delayed realization that there is no more cake left to eat. Not even extra frosting! Only a few crumbs are left on the plate.

It’s time to read the note! What could be on this important piece of paper? The cake recipe? He sure hopes so.

He flips it over and begins to read;

_Dear Jaune Arc,_

_I saw you being rushed to the infirmary and had to do something. That was the piece of cake I assume you have already eaten by now._

_But that is not why I am writing this note. The reason concerns another interesting thing I saw while you were being transported to the infirmary…_

_As you were going out of sight, I studied the reactions of the other huntsmen that were on the trip with you, and I think that you would like to know their reactions._

_Or, more specifically, their lack of reactions. It is very concerning to me to see no reaction by anyone to your plight. I can see it with Cardin, as he is an abnormally, let’s just call it “aggressive” person, but RWBY and the rest are usually not like this._

_I wish I could know why, but mind-reading is unfortunately not part of my capabilities. The only lead I have is the conversation from this morning._

_Coco was yelling at me for some reason about talking to you, and the reason for that was apparently hearing from Blake that “He is getting unfair advantages at this academy, and that you should be kicked out for being such a failure.”_

_That is all I could get from Coco, and when trying to call Blake about it she only said two words: Give Up._

_So all I can tell you now is to look out in the future. You are basically on your own with regards to the first-years from now on. I can not deny the possibility of something happening to you sometime in the future._

_One more thing: You owe me one now. Make me something good to eat!_

_~Yatsuhashi_

_P.S. Check the corner._

Jaune checks the bottom right corner of the page. He notices a really, really small fold. There’s only one thing to do with that…

He splits the paper apart. What does the second paper contain?

Well, let’s start reading it shall we?

_1 ½ cups of flour_

_1 cup of sugar_

_1 tsp baking soda_

_½ tsp salt_

_1 tsp white vinegar_

…

It’s the cake recipe. Dammit Yatsu, how do you do this so fast!

With not much to do, and no way of being released until the morning, he decides to grab his scroll, the only source of entertainment in the room, and play some games.

But first, he wonders what the news is saying about him. So he opens the news up, and WOW! The first story is really bizarre. And suspicious.

_Pancake Monopoly Officially Coronated!_

_In one of the most bizarre events in the history of Atlas, a new monopoly has been established!_

_Second to only the luxurious Schnee Dust Company, this new line will bring pancakes to a whole new level! As dust is the staple of all the kingdoms’ military, so will pancakes be the staple of all the kingdoms’ breakfast!_

_Co-leader Lie Ren is here for comment. So, what inspired you to go the extra mile and create a new monopoly on pancakes?_

“ _Nora.”_

_Well yes, Nora’s pancake binge has been spread amongst all the kingdoms, but what inspired you to join her on this quest?_

“ _I needed to satisfy her.”_

Jesus Christ Ren, what the hell did you get into?

The included picture seems to offer some insights, showing Ren in some clearly-rushed royal clothing. Nora on the other hand, looks basically the same as usual, except now with a crown on her head. And the top of that crown looks dangerously close to plate-sized… That clever girl.

No more thinking for today! He really wants to go to sleep now. He turns off the lights using a special button and tries his hardest to fall asleep.

\----Blake POV----

“Alright! The plan is simple! Pyrrha uses her magnetism to disable the cameras and pick the lock. Then we stand over Jaune menacingly and make him scared. Anyone object?!”

“Why can’t we just smash his fucking balls!”

“We’re not trying to kill him!”  
  


“But that would make everything easier!”

“It would. But then we all go to jail.”

“But Pyrrha could just break us out!”

“And then what? What would we do with all the military and shit after us?”

“We could-”

“-get surrounded and captured. And put in solitary confinement. That happened to a particularly aggressive suitor of mine.” Weiss interrupts.

“See? She knows her stuff.”

“Please let’s just focus! All we have to do is scare him enough, and he will quit this academy and we can all be happy.”

“Then let’s just go now!”

“No. There’s still people out. Can’t risk anything.”

“Ok. So what do you wanna do now?”

“Celebrate!”

“Please don’t do the club music again!”

“Relax Blake. I won’t do it again. I swear.”

“Then what are you suggesting Yang?”

“Let’s go try that new cake!”

“OOOOOH WHAT FLAVOR?!!”  
  


“I think it’s lemon!”

Ruby deflates a small bit.

“…...Ok!”

“Let’s go!”

“Yeah!”

They all go to the cafeteria to eat the new cake. They eat so much that they run out for who knows how long. Poor Jaune.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who gets to be pushed off again! That’s right, RWBYP and the top sneaky scene. Its going at the start of Chapter 11 for sure.)


	11. RYNBW Clouds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have added COLOR for your viewing convenience. You will get who's who real fast, but if not look at the "Just a RWBY Color Test" fic to get the color info.

_**In the halls of Beacon…** _

Oh boy 3 AM!

That’s the time when RWBYP make their exit from the dorm and move toward the infirmary.

This would normally be a nigh-impossible task thanks to the various cameras and doors that line the entrances.

But when you have the equivalent of an EMP and a locksmith and a nearly infinite strength magnet on your side, things tend to get easier.

And easier they did. Wires in the cameras get a mysterious interference passing through them. Doors are no issue either, as careful movement nullifies all sound. The pins inside the locks shuffle around like a deck of cards, perfectly manipulated with more skill than a master magician.

The final door awaits them now. One more pick. The pins move, and the door unlocks.

Jaune is sleeping blissfully in the hospital bed. The IV still hangs out of his arm, and the scroll is back in his pocket. His mouth is even drooling.

They take their positions, Pyrrha in the center facing him, Weiss and Blake on her sides, Ruby and Yang on the ends. Those two have some tape on their mouths. For safety reasons. Then everyone realizes one thing they forgot to plan…

**How do we wake him up?**

Everyone knows how Yang would do it if given the choice. The screaming alone would be unbearable.

They take out their scrolls and text each other some ideas.

_ Magnetize his sword onto his neck? _

_ Too cheesy. _

_ Too much screaming. _

_ I’m tired… :( _

_ Blindfold him and pretend to be a damsel in distress? _

_ YESSSSSSS!!! _

_ If you’re trying to suggest I do that I will freeze this entire room. _

_ You know you want to! _

_ NO! _

_ Why not just kick him in the balls? _

_ YANG!!!!! _

_ YANG!!!!! _

_ YANG!!!!! _

_ We talked about this... _

_Poll Started: Kick Yang out of the group?_

_Yes:4_

_No:1_

_Yang has been removed…_

_ Anyway… let’s just hit him on the head with something! That’ll be fun! _

_ With what?! _

_ No, you people don’t get it. We have to mentally torture him too. _

_ Use your shadow clones then? You can make like 20 of those right? _

_ More like 8 or so… _

_ That’ll be enough! Make them dance like little elves with the evil laugh! _

_ No. _

_Yang has rejoined the group!_

_ I thought I disabled that! _

_ I GOT IT I GOT IT! I’ll straddle him! It’ll be so much fun seeing his face! _

_ Yang she’s right here! _

_ Yeah I’m right here! _

…

_ Ok let’s start from the beginning! How can we torture him! _

_ I know I know! Blow into his ears! _

_ EWWWW! _

_ What? His dreams would be so hilarious! _

_ Jesus Christ why did I let us do this… _

_ THIS IS STUPID! YOU’RE ALL STUPID! _

The room suddenly chills.  Weiss focuses the cold near his face, attempting to get him up quickly. The temperature drops  on his face quickly to around  278 **°** K . 

Unfortunately, Jaune is in a deep slumber with no dreams right now.  A shame really.

The heart rate monitor begins to increase! Is he waking up?

Weiss lets down her arms and takes position. All the other huntresses do the same and adopt a devilish look on their face.

A blond hair tries to flutter once more. But the cold  stops it . 

H is eyelashes succeed in their quest for movement. His eyes slowly open…

The first thing in his eyesight is a rainbow of colors. He smiles for just a very brief moment. But his eyes continue to focus. Shapes begin to form.

“H-hey what are you guy..”

Jaune can no longer speak. The looks on their faces completely halt his brain. Yang, Blake, Pyrrha, and Weiss have the look of a predator finally finding their prey’s hiding spot. Ruby tried to do the same thing, but it just doesn’t fit. With a “ nope !” hand motion from Yang, this look was changed into a general ‘mad’ expression.

No one moves a muscle for over 30 agonizing seconds.

“Please! Stop!”

They are really tempted to just continue like this. But Blake, wanting to get this done and go back to sleep, starts it off.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Jaune. Do you know why we are here?”

Jaune’s head shakes almost unnaturally fast to signify a no.

“Figures. I’ll let you think about it for a moment.”

Blake gives 2 minutes. Jaune’s brain racks for anything he can possibly think of and gets no good answer. But looking back at those 5, saying nothing seems like the worst option right now.

“It’s- i- because I c-called her Crater Face, isn’t it.”

A Category 5 eye roll makes its way through three pairs of eyes in the room.

“I thought you stopped doing that!!!!”

Everyone turns over to Ruby. Not only because of the comment, but also because that sentence was said much, much louder than planned.

She gets the hint and ceases talking, but still looks at Jaune with a now genuine mad look.

“No. And you know it’s not. Let us tell you.”

Blake defers. Indecision over who will go next rushes through the other four for a bit before Yang takes it by the horns.

“Let me say something, VB. You know what you are? Weak.”

The other 4 quickly pick up on the chain.

“Underwhelming.”

“Oblivious.”

“Slow.”

“Timid.”

“Noodly.”

“Stupid.”

“Awkward.”

“Bumbling.”

“Crazy.”

“Why are you putting me down like this!”

R uby, the closest one to him, puts her small little hand over his mouth, covering it up like a cruel mouth-glove.

Blake’s amber eyes  pierce him like a bullet, throwing his brain into yet another loop.

“Because you, by all accounts, deserve to be rotting on the street somewhere. You have no strength, no hunting abilities, no confidence, no experience, and best of all, no brain. The only reason you are even in here right now is because you, in one of the rare moments of drive you have shown in your entire history, decided to cheat. And you aren’t getting punished for it. Now that would normally be a tolerable outcome. Criminals have been places they had no reason to be in many, many times before. But you know what makes it worse? You know what is a slap in the face to every person who has ever trained for several years in combat situations like all of us? Ozpin is HELPING YOU. That grey-haired rat has rewarded you! Rewarded your act of utter stupidity and carelessness just because he thinks that **YOU** of all people are somehow special. Not the person who has won four sparring tournaments in a row, not the person who fought the #1 criminal in all of Vale WHILE STILL A CHILD!, not the one who can quite literally freeze almost any living thing in existence, not the one who can cause more damage in one punch than you and your weak little hands will ever cause in your entire career, not even the one who has fought an UNCOUNTABLE AMOUNT of trained soldiers from Atlas and survived! Not even any one of the smattering of other people that are currently in this academy right now. It just **had** to be you. It just **had** to be the one who has the fighting skills of a single-celled amoeba. I am certain that you would never win a real 1 on 1  fight against a mosquito, nevermind an actual Grimm. You are, and I can say this with 100 percent confidence, the lowest lifeform this academy has ever accepted. You are a disgrace, and if you know what is good for you, if you want any chance of keeping the nice little cocoon of happiness and ignorance that you are in, you will do the proper thing and quit this academy right now.”

The silence is deafening. Thank Oum that Jaune’s brain was still in scaredy-cat mode. If he had tried to  fully  digest that…

“Jesus Christ Blake!”

Jaune’s brain has finally recovered. The piercing eyes almost throw it back into chaos, but he keeps his sanity and musters a simple response;

“No.”

“I suspected you would say that. You will regret that choice. This will not be the last of us Jaune.”

Blake slips in a sleeping pill into Jaune’s mouth. He’s not gonna be waking up so soon.  Yang puts her hands on his eyelids and forces them closed. He doesn’t open them back up.

RWBYP sneak back out the way they came, and the door shuts behind them, marking the end of this torturous “dream”.

…

T he night fades away to the morning. The nurse comes in, ready to congratulate him and announce his release only to find him still asleep…

“How could he be still asleep? It’s already 10:30.”

She checks the monitors.  Heart rate is normal, Aura is at 100%, nothing should be wrong…

She notices the plate of cake still left on his desk.  Did he stuff himself on cake? Sounds like a Jaune thing to do.

Just then some blond hair flutters once again.

“AAAH!” A scream escapes his mouth for a short moment before he returns to normal.

“Surprised to see me?”

“Yeah, but also no.”

“What do you mean?”

“I knew I was gonna get up eventually. I thought it would be Yatsu or my family waking me up.” Jaune doesn’t talk about what happened during the night.

“Well, they’re not here right now. I came here to tell you that you are being released!”

“HELLLLLL YEAAAAAH!” He stands up to go, but he forgets about the IV still hooked into his arm.

“OWWWWWWW!”

The nurse laughs. This kind of thing happens more often than you would think around here.

“Let me get that for you.” She unhooks the IV, and Jaune almost teleports out of the room, taking the note and even the cake remnants with him.

He bolts outside and takes advantage of the nice, cool air. It feels really good on his skin after being in stale hospital air for a while.

He checks over toward the Beacon Gardens for any evidence of Yatsuhashi, and finds none. But he sets that aside for now. Time to think about weapons! And he knows just the game to play to get his mind rolling...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a bit to write this one because I wanted it to not be too cheesy. I think I failed, but it was better than some of the other ideas I had.


	12. The Elevator Rises

*Ping!*

A notification interrupts an online game of Grimm Wars 2 with the new expansion: Death or Dishonor. Jaune was setting up for an amazing play with a grenade, putting it next to a tipped oil barrel, causing an explosion that would have killed several enemies on a roof. But alas…

“Damnit! Who is it from!”

He checks. It is from Glynda? Why?

_Hello Mr. Arc! Congratulations on your release from the hospital. I must inform you that you are to undergo more training at 2:00 PM. Do not be late!_

_-Professor Goodwitch_

He checks the time. It’s already 1:50!

He cancels the game, rushes to grab his weapon and other necessities, and sets off back toward the training arenas.

He makes it with but a minute to spare. Glynda still is not here, probably waiting to make her entrance at 2:00:00.0000 like last time.

His eyes take a quick look around. Where is Yatsuhashi? His presence is sorely missed in this otherwise empty room.

Time is up. Glynda arrives at 2:00 sharp  with a large bag.

“Alright Mr. Arc! Today you will learn how to manipulate dust! This is a very important tool in fighting Grimm. These crystals will extend the boundaries of what you can do in battle.” 

She takes out several types of crystals and places them next to Jaune.

“I’m sure you know what these are, correct?”

Jaune stares at her with a blank expression on his face.

“No……”

Glynda looks at him disapprovingly. She expected him to not have too much knowledge, but this bad?!

“You do not know what dust is?”

“I-I don’t…”

It takes a bit to compose herself. She knows what class is about to be added to the schedule…

“*sigh* I will give you a quick rundown. The red crystal is fire dust, it creates fire. The purple one is gravity dust. It can manipulate gravity. The light blue one is Ice dust. I think you can take it from there. The orange one is rock dust. The darker blue one is water dust. This light green one is air dust. Do you have any questions so far?”

“No ma’am.”

“Good. Go into the arena on the left.”

Jaune complies. This arena is as simple as can be, containing only one wall with a relatively small window.

He goes into the right side, Glynda puts down two crystals, one fire, and one water, right on top of each other.

“What do you think will happen If I combine these crystals?”

No need to have experience with dust to figure out this one.

“Steam!”

“Correct. Maybe you can learn the principles of dust.”

She cracks her whip in the direction of the crystals, causing them both to explode, and the effects combine instantly to fill the left side with steam.

“Interesting behavior, is it not, Mr. Arc?”

“It is. It looks so cool!”

“Now that you know that Dust crystals can combine, I will let you try yourself.”

Glynda edits some settings, and a single training droid pops out of the ceiling, unmoving.

“Due to your lack of a proper weapon, we will have to do this in possibly the most inefficient way possible…”

She stacks a fire and a gravity crystal on top of each other.

“Before you start this next exercise, I have to tell you one thing: You can change exactly what a Dust crystal will do with your thoughts. Gravity dust can be used to both go against gravity and increase its power, its the usage that makes the difference.”

“Now, the goal is very obvious. Stab those crystals with your sword.”

Jaune does so, and the effects combine, creating a positive fiery gravity well. Luckily, the smaller gravity Dust crystal means that Jaune and his sword are not stuck in place.

With effort, he moves his sword up to the sky with as much speed as he can, but can not reach the droid. The logical part of his brain kicks in and does another upward swinging motion, this time focusing more on pushing the fire upward. It works! The droid catches on fire and falls to the ground.

Glynda is impressed. For someone who has so little knowledge, he sure is picking up on things quite easily…

She presses another button and the wall collapses. A forest of training dummies then spawn all around Jaune.

He doesn’t need instructions. Fire bursts forth from the sword at an incredible pace, mowing down the dummies like  a wrecking ball mowing down little wooden huts . He even uses the curve of the arena to his advantage, throwing a special fire shot that takes a ring path all the way around. After 45 seconds, all 130 or so dummies are gone.

Glynda is cheering a bit on the inside, but that doesn’t translate to the surface, where the normal emotionless look still reigns on her face.

“You are doing surprisingly well. However, these tests were easy. **When** you get a proper weapon, I will introduce movement into the equation. You will be given three days to think about your new weapon design. There will be severe consequences if you do not show up with a Dust-capable weapon.”

Jaune’s face breaks into a smile, as he can imagine all the good  weapon  ideas that he could use.

“You will get a deposit of 6000 Lien to get a new weapon. This will be enough for all but the most extravagant of weapon designs. Take inspiration from everyone around you, Mr. Arc. Every huntsman in existence has “borrowed” ideas from somewhere. This training is over. Go think about your future. But I advise one thing: no whip. There is only enough room for one whip user around here.”

He goes off back to his dorm,  mind set ablaze with  new ideas. Maybe a sword that is infused with switchable Dust? How about a sword that can take the earth up with me to stand on? That would be amazing to tower over all the Grimm!

\----Pyrrha POV----

T his lunch sure is good! It is a salad today, with  lots of lettuce and  fresh vegetables to create a flavorful, healthy dish . I dig into my third bite. This salad is excellent.  Then a lock of blond hair slides into my view.

**Jaune.**

Appetite gone. He’s not stupid enough to come here this time, instead moving into the line. Why does he look so happy? Why does he get to stay here  **while I get to suff-**

Mental reset. Focus on the food, Pyr…

But what gets me is that he doesn’t even seem phased by anything! How?!

We should have scared his brains out last night! He should not be walking around here like everything is fine!

He made it to the front of the line. I watch him as he goes to get the food.

He doesn’t get any food.

I ignore the dark vortex encroaching on my mind and continue watching.

I hear the short conversation go on between Jaune and the lunch person:

“Do you have any of that new cake?”

“The Lemon? No, we don’t. It was cleaned out yesterday.”

“By who?”

“That I cannot tell. But man, they sure did enjoy it… Those five cleared it out within minutes.”

“Those **five** , huh? Of course. Thanks anyway.”

That lemon cake sure did taste good.  Wait, I need to focus!

I watch him continue on out of the line. He walks close by and sees me.

He stops dead in his tracks. Several reactions cross his face before  he turns and runs far, far away.

**Was I really that threatening?**

I guess I was. Oh well, he deserves to be scared like that. Maybe it will get him out of here faster.

I return to my salad. The lettuce is now soggy.  Oum dammit Jaune! Every time you show up my life gets worse!

I text the members of RWBY about what just happened.

_ Jaune is back again. He seems happy. Too happy. Why didn’t the scare work on him?! _

_Several people are typing…_

This many people have an opinion on him? Wow, he really is divisive, isn’t he!

I take a quick check at the members. At the top is Yang, the one who started this whole thing. Then me, the rest of RWBY, Coco, and Velvet.

Where is Cardin?  Whatever, not important right now. What is important is the reactions. I switch back over to the main chat and…

_ I don’t know. Maybe it’s the help he has been getting. _

_ I knew we should have kicked his balls in! _

_ Just wait. The isolation will eventually exhaust him out and he will leave. _

_ I’m tired of waiting! Can’t we just attack him? _

_ No, because then Ozpin will just put another chip on his shoulder. Just take this one slow. _

_ Not even a little nudge? Like tripping him or something? _

_ Yeah! _

_ You could, but then what? _

_ Uhhh… _

I don’t really know what to think. I want him expelled from the academy, but is it really necessary to push him down like this?

I know what I can do! I’ll just do some quick reconnaissance! Figure out where he’s going, and just scare him again. If a simple stare can make him crumple, following him will be even better!

_ Look, look. Blake is right, don’t be so hasty to hurt him. I’ll go follow him around a bit. I’ll give him another scare and this situation will be gone!  _

_ You go girl! Scare the drabby pants off of him! _

_ Yeah!  _

I take the empty bowl up and scan around, looking for where he might have gone.

I leave the cafeteria and the path splits in two. Which one do I go down?

RWBY and NPR are on the right, so I doubt it would be over there. I turn to the left. It’ll be so easy to scare him again. His reaction will be so priceless!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11 was the conclusion of the first part of this adventure. Now we enter Part 2.


	13. Stressing and Straining

Jaune is running. Where? Even he doesn’t know. All he knows is that Pyrrha staring at him really, really creeped him out. But why?

“Maybe they really are getting to me…”

He has to get them out of his head. But how? He certainly isn’t going to the cafeteria anytime soon, that’s for sure.  Thankfully there aren’t any classes left today, because Jaune would have been too caught up with all of the things that have gone on these past  four days to care.

T here is one thing he wants; for everything to just slow down. These past few days have been an absolute whirlwind of activity, something that would probably tire even the ball of boundless energy that is Nora Valkyrie.

“What better place to relax than the gardens? They have some nice benches there! Then I can relax…”

Jaune, with weapon, scroll, and wallet all in hand, takes a small stroll over there.

As he arrives to the garden, the scenery is breathtaking. Many types of trees and flowers line the area. The red roses combined with the many, many dandelions, sunflowers, and pure evergreen trees really make for a stunning view.

He sits down on a bench and takes it all in.  All his worries melt away in the breeze as the natural world buries them deep, deep under the ground.

He lazes around, playing on his scroll for a while. This break was the best thing that has happened to him all week…

After around 30 minutes, a distinct VWOOOM!!! sound breaks through the tranquility. There’s only one person who can make that sound.

He turns to the side, and, just barely close enough to see, the distinctive pink of Nora’s hair comes into view. He watches it go inside the academy.

And where Nora goes, Ren is sure to follow. But he didn’t see him back there…

“You know what? I’m gonna call him. See how that whole pancake monopoly thing went. It’ll be a fun story, that’s for sure.”

He dials his number.

*beeeeeeeeep* *beeeeeeep* *beeeeeeeeep*

“Jaune?”

“Ren?

“Hey Jaune. How are things going?”

“Let’s just say, not very good. How’s yours? From the news stories I read you and Nora were sure having a good time!”

“Uh-huh… sure was a “good” time…”

“Where are you anyway?”

“Out at the grocery store looking for ingredients.”

“Why?”

“The usual.”

“Didn’t you have the whole pancake monopoly thing going? You can’t possibly need to bake more pancakes.”

“I surrendered that monopoly to the Schnees. It was the only way to get Nora back down to Remnant.”

“Did you really have to go through all that?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Too much to explain **in a short conversation like this one.** ”

“I’m sure. I’m going through a similar thing right now with Pyrrha.”

“Speaking of her, how is she doing?”

Jaune was really hoping he wouldn’t ask that. He quickly realized that he was the one who brought her up in the first place. Arghhh!

“uh…. She’s… how do I put this… I’ll just say ‘problematic’ for now.”

The line is silent.

“Sorry for bringing her up and ruining your day, I swear I did-”

“It’s ok. I’ll call you later after I finish getting these ingredients. Goodbye Jaune.”

“Bye.”

He hangs up.

“Stupid! Why did you bring her into that! Now both of us are thinking about it.”

N othing he can do now though. He just looks back to the garden, trying to lose himself once again. 

And it works… almost. But this time around, he notices a small patch of flowers that seem to have been crushed. It’s a real shame, because these flowers were possibly the most vibrant out of them all, with a shimmering purple one leading them all. They looked really cared for too, they surely would have been  t- taller than all the rest… Oh well.

Seeing this has got Jaune down in the dumps again. Lucky for him, nature comes in all forms. If one is not giving you energy, you can always change the scenery.

Jaune goes to the cliffside and sits on the edge. The sunset is approaching, being only around 30 minutes away. He has nothing to do for now, so he decides to just wait and watch the sun slowly trickle down.

His eyes follow. He really needs this sleep after getting “interrupted” last night… Jaune falls into a peaceful slumber on the cliffside, the first proper sleep he has gotten since Forever Fall.

_**Meanwhile...** _

An invincible girl makes a sharp U-turn. Sharper than extra-sharp cheddar cheese. The guess was wrong! Jaune’s room is down the way of the RWBY dorm.

She runs back through the hallway, catching the eyes of many classmates as she goes. But just as fast as she enters, she leaves, merely a shiny blur to any onlookers.

Going down  the right hallway this time, she approaches the only team of importance down this way; CFVY. But a piercing yell catches her ears and she skids to a stop.

Curious, she listens in to what follows.

“WHY ARE YOU HELPING HIM?!”

“He is a nice person. I promise you that he is skilled.”

“IN WHAT?!”

“He has very good cooking skills. He made me an excellent meal a few nights ago.”

“ **THAT** IS WHAT YOU WERE DOING?!”

“He fell out of the sky. I could not sit by and let him be.”

“YOU SHOULD HAVE!”

“Coco please don-”

“VELVET! YOU HEARD ABOUT ALL THE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED BECAUSE OF HIM!”

“Yatsu couldn-”

The voice suddenly gets muffled before falling silent. After some silence, a set of footsteps are heard. They gradually get louder and louder.

Oh shit, gotta run!

Pyrrha runs away in a blur, trying to refocus her mind on the ultimate prize. She looks back. Yatsuhashi is now outside the door, briskly walking away from the room. What happened to get  **him** mad of all people? Sure must not have been good.

She continues on, looking at various doors trying to find the one. No luck on the first three. No luck here either, that’s a janitor’s closet. Another set is on the other side.  The first door opens and..!

Empty.

The second door is the same. The third door, however, does contain something.

The room is mostly empty, save for a couple of decorations and a simple bed. This doesn’t look like a place Jaune would be. But what else could it be? There’s no single huntsmen or huntresses needing a room right now…

She steps inside and looks around some more. On the second pass, a piece of paper catches her eye. She looks it over.

“A cake recipe? Really?”

It does look interesting though. Maybe she should try it?

More looking. She opens the closet, and surprise, surprise, a Pumpkin Pete hoodie stands front and center. No doubt about it now.  But where is he?

Coming out of the closet, she checks around for his scroll, or anything that could explain where he is. A drawer gets opened along the way and inside it is… another note? How odd…

She reads this one.

Things begin to click. Like finding the final puzzle piece of a glorious scenery puzzle, the big picture finally begins to be seen.

Yatsuhashi helping him too? That’s what all the yelling was about…

And that’s why he was so happy! Oum dammit!

The dark vortex that had been relatively sidelined up until now makes another attempt to overthrow its master.

Luckily, it fails. Pyrrha continues to look around for any evidence of Jaune. All the drawers are combed through, all the closets are searched. She even looks under the bed. But nothing pops up. With no evidence of Jaune and nowhere else to look, she decides to go back to her dorm, sad and dejected. 

The walk is slow. Going back to the dorm empty-handed is a depressing feeling. And running into Weiss on the way back doesn’t help.

“How did the scare go?”

“He wasn’t there.”

“You couldn’t find him? With the blond hair and everything? He sticks out like a sore thumb!”

“Nope. I found his dorm but he wasn’t in there.”

“That’s disappointing. I know for certain he’ll be in class tomorrow. How about a collaboration of sorts?”

“Sounds good. But why?”

“Think about it. If there’s one thing that shakes Jaune more than anything in the world, it’s his bad social skills. Especially with women. We are his two biggest failures in that department by a wide margin. If we combine together to expose his awkwardness to everyone, there’s no way he won’t buckle.”

Pyrrha thinks about it. But not for long. Really it does make sense. All it will take is a bit of a nudge… right? And a double team will make things easier for everyone!

“Alright, I’m in. But what do you suggest we do?”

Weiss leans close in and whispers the plan. (A/N: haha no spoilers suck it)

A smile breaks out on both of their faces.

“I love it!”

“It will be grand. See you tomorrow!”

“See you!”

Both of them leave to their dorms with happy moods.  Pyrrha is genuinely happy, with no mood problems, for the first time since this whole thing started. Will tomorrow continue the mood?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may notice something that I haven’t done to this point happening in this chapter. You may not believe it, but I am slowing this rollercoaster down. ONLY A LITTLE BIT! But it is slower. Think Mach 2 speed instead of Mach 3 speed, so still enough to make you ask "WTF?", but only 1 question mark instead of 20.


	14. Gravitational Well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “They say that, night is a good counselor. Tonight, let us bring the Greeks some advice. Trojan advice written in blood. Abandon the land of Troy!" *lightning strike*

T he sun begins to rise over the cliffs.  It shines its light down, painting the cliffside in a nice bath of yellow. Except, of course, for one small area. Looking like a rock from far away, closer inspection reveals the object for what it truly is, a human. 

An enhanced zoom in reveals said human sleeping like a baby, despite nothing being draped over his figure. The scroll in his pocket reads 6:29 AM, just one minute away from shattering this perfect picture.

As the sun creeps ever higher, rapidly approaching the flowers beyond the cliffs with its yellow light, the high peaks of digital sound waves break the natural scene.

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*

Jaune wakes up from his sleep. The most refreshing sleep that’s he’s ever had.  Instead of dreaming about RWBYP or some weird dreamscape, his dreams were possibly the most weirdly normal thing of all; a dream about his sisters.

No “girlfriend” complimenting his presence, no Grimm trying to puncture the backdrop, just a nice hangout with his seven sisters. Not even his parents are there to try to bring order to this chaotic scene.  It reminds him of his childhood where he was much happier.

**Simpler times.**

He can almost feel some of the sisters still stuck to him like glue. But it slowly fades away back into nothingness as he gets up and rejoins present-day Remnant. With 5 minutes already gone, he sets out for breakfast.

Entering the breakfast line,  everything seems slightly brighter, like someone turned on a light somewhere. They even have the lemon cake!

Jaune grabs a piece and looks for a place to sit. As he looks around, his nose smells something very familiar…

**Pancakes.**

His eyes snap over to see an absolute mountain of pancakes, at least 30  of them stacked up on one unceremonious plate. Man that looks tasty. There is no way that he is getting any. But how did she get those? They’re not even serving any today!

He starts to move on, but another pair of eyes move first. They brighten like a squirrel discovering the wondrous amounts of food from an acorn tree. And just like a  squirrel stuffs its mouth with nuts…

“Fearless Leader!”

...a Valkyrie stuffs itself with pancakes. They number only 25 or so now, but somehow she finds time in the midst of eating them to shout out for Jaune.

“IT’S BEEN SO LONG! C’mere Jaune! PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE”

Five people’s  eyes are rolling outside of their head right now. But they still have hope. Nora is known for tiring people out, so maybe she can be an unwitting pawn?  They certainly don’t want Magnhild turned on them, that’s for sure…

Jaune of course does not notice any of this. His mind screams at him to ask about how she got all those pancakes. Especially since Ren is not showing any symptoms of tiredness. So he moves over.

“YES! Jaune-Jaune I missed you so much! I was so scared when you weren’t over at the dorm! What happened?!”

“Nora please don-”

But Ren is far, far too late. Those eyes that were previously in the back of skulls are now back facing front. And they are staring at him like the barrel of a gun. He knows what they are trying to convey.

**Control her.**

“Nora please! I just came here! Let me eat my cake!”

“NO NO NO! I MUST know what happened! Please Jaune-Jaune!”

“Tell me how you got those pancakes and I’ll say it.”

“Of course Fearless Leader! The company made them for me!”

“Company?”

Those eyes are staring at Ren’s soul right now. When Nora’s arms get more and more animated, it gets even scarier. He gets kicked in the leg, dangerously close to getting some involuntary CBT.

Yang has a look on her face that clearly screams that she is just one spark away from committing triple homicide. He has to act.

“Nora maybe we should-”

“C’mon Renny! Don’t you wanna talk to Jaune-Jaune!”

“It’s not that simple and you know it.”

“C’mon, Nora. I’ll even give…”

The rainbow of colors gets up from the table and leaves. Pyrrha pulls Ren’s hand with the force of 1000 pounds of lead, dragging him away from the table. They all quickly disappear from the cafeteria.

“And then they were like ‘pew-pew’! But they couldn’t stop Magnhild, right R-”

Jaune turns around to see why Nora paused her explanation  and sees it too. An empty space where six huntsmen and huntresses once were. He takes advantage of the situation to grab a piece of pancake onto his fork and shove it in his mouth.

“This really is good. I’m gonna have to go up to Atlas one day and eat these!”

“HEY!!! THOSE ARE FOR MY EYES ONLY!”

S he stuffs more pancakes in her mouth. One of the few things that can drag her away from pancakes is Ren, and after a few more bites, Nora asks the most important question.

“Where did Renny go?”

* ping *

_At the dorm. We need to talk._

“Gotta go, Renny’s calling for meeeee! See you fearless leader!”

And Nora vanishes too, taking the last of the pancakes with her. All that is left is Jaune and his lemon cake, still untouched.

“Well that was something…”

He knows exactly who caused that “something” too. He saw the looks in their eyes. But why weren’t they directed at him like they usually are?

“Not today.”

Today is gonna be a very good day. And what better to start it off with some nice lemon cake!

Jaune finally takes his first bite. This is even better than he  imagined! However, instead of scarfing it down like he usually would, he slows down and enjoys it more. The lemon frosting just fills his mouth with flavor. 

Seconds of enjoyment turn into minutes as Jaune loses himself in contentedness for the second time this morning.  Today really is a good day. 

After finally getting down to the last few crumbs of cake, he sets his plate down and looks around. Still no one around him.

He looks farther and sees Yatsuhashi, sitting alone as well, but with a slightly sadder look on his face. He makes an executive decision right now; Yatsu will not be left alone like that.

Jaune goes over and sits with him.

“Hey Yatsu. Where’s the rest of your team?”

“I had a fight with them. We could not come to an agreement, so I am on my own for right now.”

“Why fight? Did Coco try to put you in one too many shirts?”

“No. It is something far more important than that.”

“What?”

“You.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No.”

Jaune processes this for a moment. Before he can set out to speak his mind, a chime sounds.

“Oh, it’s 15 minutes until the training. Let’s walk up there together.

We’ll talk about this on the way.”

“Ok.”

He takes Yatsu’s plate up like a good gentleman should, and then sets off.

“Let’s go Yatsu.” Jaune pats him on the back as a nudge to leave.

Jaune sets off without checking to see if he responded, only looking back once he was out of the cafeteria. Turning around, he sees Yatsu approaching, walking at a slow pace. He has to know why.

“Alright Yatsu, what happened? Tell me everything.” They begin walking at a slow pace.

“………...While you were in the infirmary, Coco talked to me concerning you. She knew I was helping with your training. That is why I could not make it to the training yesterday. I got caught in a shouting match with her about helping you. I couldn’t stand it, so I left to tend to the flowers for a while.”

“After that, I came back, and immediately asked her why she was so concerned about you. ‘After all, it was only training sessions.’ I said. But the only thing that accomplished was making her angrier. The only time I have ever seen her more angry was when she was denied the newest lingerie set on launch day because of a misunderstanding.” Yatsu chuckles a bit remembering the memory.

“I bet that was scary. At least you can laugh at it now. So what else?”

“Well, the argument became surprisingly intense, and if it wasn’t for Velvet calming her down, I fear she may have done something drastic. So I left back to the flowers again. But this time, the patch I had been growing for about three months was smashed.”

“I noticed that yesterday! I’m so sorry Yatsu.” The 8 AM bell rings, making them late for training, but they don’t notice.

“You don’t need to apologize. There is nothing you could have done. After that, I did the only thing that could relax me, which is cooking some food. I had to sleep in the library though. Coco just shut the door whenever I showed up to enter.”

That’s… depressing. But Jaune is in an amazing mood today. Time to share it!

“Don’t worry about that now Yatsu. If you need a place to be, you can come to my dorm. I don’t want you to sleep in the library again.”

“I appreciate your offer.”

“Tell you what, I’ll make you something tonight. As thanks for being here with me. Everyone else has just either attacked and/or avoided me for a while. I’m glad you stay around.”

“It is nothing. You are a good person to be around, and if no one else can see that, it is their loss.”

“Same to you, friend.” Just then he bumps against the walls of the training area. He checks up at the clock. It reads 8:05 AM.

“Oh shit! We’re late!” Jaune runs in, with Yatsu close behind. Hopefully Glynda doesn’t kill them for this!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I looked up spelling Nora’s last name on DuckDuckGo, and 2/5 suggestions were about lemons. Jesus. And then I read the first result of that search. And if you think this is an offensive display of the spoken word, oh boy you ain’t seen nothing yet… I will NEVER self-depreciate my writing EVER again. Fucking Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing was better designed than that.  
> If you want the ego boost:
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/502923940-male-reader-x-nora-lemon-pancakes-vs-waffles [of course it is on Wattpad]


	15. Suitably Nailed

\----Nora POV----

*ping*

_At the dorm. We need to talk._

“Gotta go, Renny’s calling for meeeee! See you fearless leader!”

Renny knew I was wondering about him! He is so sweet!

But why was he not with me! He got dragged away for no reason!

And now he wants to talk? This better not be a ploy to take away my pancake indemnity! I worked so hard for that!

I spin around Magnhild in the air like a juggler. This better be good or some legs are going down!

But it’s my Renny. It’ll be good.

I enter the JNPR dorm and Renny’s there! But it’s not just him. Pyr-Pyr is with him too. They are standing in a weird “arc” pattern. Haha! ARC!

This team truly is the best.

“Sit down, Nora.”

I sit down on the bed opposite them, keeping one hand on Magnhild. You never know!

“...*sigh* This isn’t gonna be fun. I wish I could keep this a secret, but I have to tell you before you accidentally cause more chaos.”

More chaos?! A secret? **It better no-**

“No, it’s not the pancake indemnity. I wouldn’t dare touch that. Put the hammer down, Nora.”

Wait, I was holding the hammer?! A quick look over reveals that, yep, I was looking like I was about to break someone’s legs! But I won’t need to. I put it back down, making sure to retain a small grip on it.

A silence passes over us.

“Jaune’s not on the team anymore.”

…

…

…

Processing…

“Nora?”

“W-w-w-w-w-w-Why?!”

“Let me explain.” I see Ren tap Pyrrha on the shoulder. Is she about to-

*VWOOOOM!!!!*

“Pyr!” She looks just as sad as Renny does.

“*clears throat* Jaune and Pyrrha had a falling out. She got really, really angry, and so Jaune was moved off the team. He’s still in the academy, but he’s not here. JNPR is no more.”

“B-but…” Why would this happen?! Jaune would never let himself be removed from us!

“It was the best thing for the team. Trust me, I miss him too.”

“NO! Jaune-Jaune would **NEVER** let something like that happen! He would try to patch it up and be friends! He always does!”

“It was unfixable Nora. Jaune tried, believe me. But the situation was just too much.”

This doesn’t add up. He wouldn’t willingly accept that. He loves this team!

He was so happy with us!

My brain trips over itself and I am stuck silent.

“Nora…”

Renny is silent too. Did Jaune really leave us?! WHY?! I have to talk to him! I’m gonna get him to join this team again! This can’t happen!

I turn around and run for the door. I engage the l-

It’s not moving!

**Why is it not moving!**

“NORA!”

“Eep!” “PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!”

“No. You can’t do anything about this. He’s separated from us now, and that’s how it is.”

“RENNY NO! This can’t be this way! You have to help me get Jaune-Jaune back!”

Ren sighs. He was really hoping not to have to do this…

I hear him whisper something to Pyr. She nods quickly, gives him Magnhild, and heads out of the room. I faintly hear a knock, before another door opens and quickly shuts closed.

“Alright Nora. I’m gonna tell you why Jaune and Pyrrha had a falling out, ok? Promise not to get mad or rush out someplace?”

Renny puts his hand on my back. It’s sooooooo soothing.  This will all be over soon! Then I can talk to Fearless Leader about him coming back!

“Ok! I won’t do anything or break anyone’s legs!”

I feel him smile. Everything is gonna be peachy! We’ll finish this talk, and then he’ll feed me pancakes, and the-

“*clears throat*”

My head snaps over to him.

“Jaune forged his transcripts. Pyrrha decided to tell Ozpin. Instead of expelling him, like she and everyone else thought, Ozpin decided to keep him around, and he separated him from our team. Now he is off on his own, getting special training.”

…

…

“Why did she have to take him away?”

“Nora, don’t think like that. It was an inevitability that Ozpin would find out about this anyway. There was no way he would keep this team together.”

“He’s headmaster! There’s no way he wouldn’t know about that! He put Jaune here for a reason!”

“And he took him out for a reason. Now c’mon, let’s go to class. I’ll even give you some more of those pancakes.”

“Pancakes! YES!”

Why do I like pancakes so much anyway? Whatever, no time for that now, I got some pancake monsters to slay!

\----*---- (A/N: it will be here soon. i promise.)

“Jaune Arc!”

Uh oh…

‘Why are you late?”

“I had to help Yatsu out with something.”

Yatsu nods in confirmation.

“Do not be late again. Now let us start with training. I see you still have your old weapon.”

“I haven’t gotten around to buying a new one.” Technically true, but this does gloss over the fact that he also forgot.

“That is actually a good thing, Mr. Arc. Because you will be called today during sparring class. I need to check your progress so far.”

“It’s been just 3 days!”  
  


“It has. But you have shown much improvement during these three days, more than I thought was possible. Now let us begin.”

The first challenge is the training dummy thing from earlier. Jaune recognizes the situation immediately this time, being the area where he defeated the  Death Stalker during initiation. 

“You should recognize this one. That familiar feeling should help you out here. This droid will shoot at you, so watch out fo that as well.”

Jaune steps inside the arena. The most notable thing about this particular scene, was that unlike during Forever Fall, multiple colors, including the  many subtle greys of the buildings, the dark green of the surrounding forests and trees, and the  pure, dominating  blue sky, are present in the arena. 

**It’s nice when you can afford multiple colors in a scene. No I’m not disgusted at the look of the early part of this anime, what are you ta-**

“Begin!”

Jaune looks around, and the first thing he notices is the bridge. He remembers a lot from initiation, and one feeling sticks out more than just about anything…

**Shakiness.**

He was shaking, most of the other huntsmen and huntresses were shaking, and that bridge… oh, that bridge…

He does the smart thing and cut it down before anything could happen. Two quick slashes of rope is all that is needed and that crossing falls to the ground.

But how to get over to the other side now?

*pew*

Oh shit! It can see him from here?! Jaune moves his sword to block it seemingly with ease. The shot bounces harmlessly off. He looks around for a path and sees the right side has some easily jumpable gaps.

He begins to cross. On the way he sees some dust crystals, mostly fire, with a few others thrown in. Were those there in initiation?

Jaune looks over to Glynda for confirmation. She simply smiles.

As he was looking, another shot rang out. He flips around to block it just in the nick of time. Even Yatsuhashi was tensed up at that one.

After some easy jumps, he is finally on the end with the droid.  He sees a downed tree and decides to hide behind it to think about his options. After way longer than is honestly necessary, he peeks out above the log. What is he going to do?

He has a hunch that the guns are on its sides. If he quickly scurries under it, it can’t hit him. And then it is as good as dead. He’ll even put a fire Dust crystal on just to be safe.

He executes the plan. It goes off without a hitch! But the most important part was the way Jaune finished off the droid, by giving it two slices, one to stun it, and one stab between the eyes to take it down.

Jaune looks pleased. Yatsu does too. Glynda turns off the arena and lets him out.

“Very good planning. I’m surprised you remembered that bridge. It would have collapsed on you had you tried to cross it. Your instincts were also exceptional. But there is one glaring flaw; you took too long. You sat behind that log for several seconds trying to decide what to do. And even though you got it right, a huntsman often does not get that time in a real battle with the Grimm. Adequate, I suppose, Mr. Arc.”

The next test is deceivingly simple. All there is is a small machine on the top edge.

Jaune enters and stares at it.

“Take a stance at the back.” He does so. Wind activates, pushing him back.

I t fires some sort of explosive ball?! This is interesting. He tanks the first hit, pushing him to the back edge. Paint gets all over his armor. Jaune gets what needs to be done.

He slowly pushes toward the machine, deflecting several hits a s he goes. The machine aims everywhere, but mostly toward his head and chest areas. Some even angle away from him, not even needing to be touched.

Many hits are taken, and it takes quite a while thanks to the strong winds, but he makes it over and slams his palm on the machine, deactivating it.

“Impressive.”

That’s all he gets out of Glynda. But a compliment is a compliment.  Maybe it is because he looks like a clown got thrown into a tornado.

He waits for his final test. He’s learned that it comes in threes by now.

“Yatsuhashi, take out your weapon.” He does so.

“The final challenge for today is a small practice spar vs Yatsuhashi. Instead of waiting until your Aura is in the red, you will duel for only one minute. He will not be holding back too much this time.”

Luckily both fighters’ semblances either don’t exist, or are non-factors.

Otherwise even the one minute could be a problem…

They take their respective stances. Glynda puts in the one minute timer.

“Begin!”

Jaune takes the offensive immediately. His moves are much, much improved, but they are still too slow, and Yatsu blocks them easily. He takes the offensive now, pushing Jaune away with his long sword.

Jaune looks for any openings, and even finds a few, but Yatsu simply outranges him, meaning that taking advantage of any of them is impossible. He needs to try something else.

Which is exactly what he does. After parrying a few slashes, Yatsu aims for the head. Jaune takes the time to duck under and go for his legs. He throws his shield at them to make sure that Yatsu stumbles.

Yatsu tries to jump out of the way, but is not fast enough. He’s not in danger of falling, but has to keep control of his hefty sword, leaving no real counterattack ability.

Jaune takes advantage and gets up in his face, getting several good slashes in. Yatsu, now out of his comfort zone, is forced to use one hand to push Jaune out of the way. His strength is too much for the blond and he is knocked to the ground.

At this point it is Yatsuhashi’s spar now. Jaune defends against his attacks well, but also takes quite a few hits in before the one minute buzzer sounds.

Glynda, unable to hide her impressed expression, reveals to them their Aura levels.

_Jaune Arc: 90%_

_Yatsuhashi Daichi: 92%_

That is much closer than Glynda was thinking it was. But what impressed her most out of all of that was Jaune’s resourcefulness. Finding a way to cause his enemy to stumble when the usual fighting style doesn’t work is a  rare trait.

“Very impressive, from both of you. I admire your ability to think outside-the-box, Mr Arc. You managed to get some hits in despite being outranged and outclassed. That is hard to teach. I hope you will do the same in the sparring match. Both of you are dismissed!”

They both leave, Jaune to the cafeteria, and Yatsu to his team’s dorm to cook. Jaune is the best he has felt in years! The glow surrounding him is brighter than ever as he walks through the halls...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first half of this is totally gonna be on r/menwritingwomen


	16. Sapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RCA connectors (composite video) was a pretty good standard for the time. Now we have glorious HDMI, but you can’t fault the engineers back then. They were really good.

\----Jaune POV----

Fuck yeah! They have pizza today! I take three pieces and sit down alone somewhere. That pepperoni looks so succulent… And before I know it, it is gone. Pizza truly is a gift from the gods.

Thankfully I have two slices left! Man this day is good. Helped Yatsu out, did really good In training, no boring History class today! But there is that Dust class coming up though…

No matter! Dust is fun! There’s no way in hell it can as bad as Port’s classes…

I focus back on my pizza. Man that smell is intoxicating.

*chomp*

Another slice is gone. This is great!

Then a shooting sound enters my ears. I look over in that direction and see Yang looking very mad.

“Stop touching her!”

“Yang please she can do what she-”

“It’s **my** sister and **I** decide who she messes with!”

I zoom out a bit and see a guy running away out of fear. Typical Yang. It’ll really suck for Ruby trying to get a date to the dance.

When is the dance anyway?

Luckily a colorful flyer is just over to the right.

_Come one, come all to the annual Beacon Dance!_

_Show off your dancing skills with fast-paced club music, or take a nice slow ride with your beau to a slower-paced song. It also comes with the highest quality fruit punch and pizza!_

_The dance is next Thursday, so be there or be square!*_

_*Squares are also welcome. Terms and Conditions may apply._

Highest quality pizza?!

Let’s see that’s…. I take out my fingers to count the days and it’s… 10 days from now! I got plenty of time to practice my best moves!

I inhale the final piece of cheesy goodness and prepare to leave for the Dust class. It’s gonna be so easy!

_**One walk through the hallways later** _ _**...** _

I’m here! Of course it just had to be at the very end of the hall. Thank Oum I made it before the bell. I open the door and the teacher is right there, seemingly waiting on my entrance.

“Welcome back to the class Jaune! You’re lucky to be allowed back here. We rearranged the seating while you were gone, so please take your seat over there.”

She points to the last column of desks, where there is an open spot just past halfway down. Weiss and Pyrrha are on the column to the left, forming a small triangle pattern.

“Yes ma’am!”

I jump over there and sit down. I hear some snickers as I sit down, but they are just small potatoes now.

“Today’s lesson is about the dangers of dust mixing. Before I start however…”

She grabs a pretty large book and walks over toward me.

“Since you have been gone a few days, I made a book that contains what you have missed. I expect you to read up on it for the test coming up in 2 days.”

I notice Weiss covering her ears. Several other students are doing the same. Why are th-

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA my ears are ringing! How heavy is that damn book?

The teacher walks back over to her desk. I use this time to take out my notepad and prepare to take something resembling notes. If my ears will stop ringing!

“Mixing dust is a really, really risky idea. I’ll show it off first by mixing some gravity and ice dust under this protective shield. PLEASE do not try this at home.”

I only catch the second half of that thanks to **my ears ringing!** But it begins to calm down.

I watch her put the dust down, and give the container a nice little shake.

The dust starts sparking inside the container, but as the smoke dies down, a small ball of ice remains.

Write that down!

The pencil gets used for the first time today. But it feels really.. good to write these notes. Much better than that boring history class.

Meanwhile, the professor continues on, talking about all the properties of this mysterious ball.

“If not for the special covering on the bottom of this container, this ball would go straight through the floor, the basement, and even a lot of the dirt before getting stopped. Balls that are bigger can destroy entire city blocks.”

That’s two lines on the paper already! And I haven’t even fell asleep yet!

...It’s half an hour now. This class is much better than history class! I had to use a second page for notes! **Two pages!** I’ve never done that in my life, that’s for sure. Now she’s talking about some accident that happened at a dustworks shop or something, I don’t care.

I’m just doodling some weapon ideas right now. Maybe a double-chambered thing? How about a sword with dust tubes? Maybe a sword with a-

*bzzzzzzt*

Who is that? I look up at the teacher and she is just going on and on about this accident. No way she’ll notice.

_Hi!_

What? I check the number and it says “Restricted”. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

_Who is this?_

_Nothing you need to know right now. What you do need to know is just how dreamy you look._

What the Oum? Who would do something like this? My mind is really thinking now. I scan around the room quickly. There are tons of faces here. All of RWBY, NPR, CRDL, hell even CFVY are here. Never mind all the other students... This doesn’t help!

_Uhhh… thanks?_

My eyes scan the room for any reactions, but no one moves. I just look back to the teacher for now. Now she’s talking about a Dustmas festival? How many accidents have there been with Dust? Well, time to get back to notes…

I write down just two and a half sentences before the scroll buzzes again.

_I saw you look at me a minute ago. <3_

Jesus this person is trying to kill me! I look around again, and still no one is moving. They must have ice in their veins! I try to keep that in mind and narrow down the candidates. Definitely not Cardin, thank fucking Oum. I guess I can also eliminate… uhhhhhh…… uhhhhhhhhhhhhh……

“Jaune Arc! If you are going to not pay attention in my class at least stare into the book I spent all of five minutes preparing for you! These ungrateful children I swear…”

Everyone starts laughing at me. Even Weiss is laughing! **Weiss!** She doesn’t have a funny bone in her body!

Whatever. Gotta concentrate. Now she’s talking about Dust ratios and other math stuff. At least there I have a chance.

*bzzzzt*

Nope, not letting that get me again! Math, math math. 3 cups of fire dust plus 1 pinch of gravity dust makes the fire go upside down?! That’s cool!

The pencil is getting a real workout now. The second page is covered in graphite. On to the third. Everything is getting ba-

*bzzzt*

Stop this! I am now visibly sweating as my mind fights between the allure of the mystery admirer and the important Dust learning. Focus!

*bzzzt*

This is insane! I fight desperately to keep my mind focused…

But I can’t. I have to check it.

_I know you’re thinking about me Jaune…_

_I can see you getting tense..._

_Isn’t it so tantalizing to have someone who wants you so close?!_

I hear a small laugh. Then another one joins. Then three more.

It’s probably about me isn’t it... Uggggggggggghhhh… I can almost feel the brightness slipping away...

*bzzzt*

**WHAT THE HELL IS IT NOW?!**

It shows a picture of me. In this room. Looking like I am about to explode. That’s definitely what they were laughing about.

And then the caption..

_Pffft! You look so cute trying to not think about me. And you don’t even know who I am! This is too much fun!_

_Hey! Stop doing that!_

_Doing what? ;)_

I slump down in my chair at that one, making an audible bang as my face hits the desk.

More laughing. Just great… And now the teacher’s staring at me…

“Jaune Arc! Stop goofing off in my class! Last time I checked you barely even knew of the legendary Schnee Dust Company! I should fail you right this instant for such a grave offense!”

I’m not letting this go any longer! I block this stupid “Restricted” person once and for all! No more distractions!

I get back into the lecture, about to put pencil to paper and-

*bzzzt*

_Not getting rid of me that easily! ;)_

……………...Just let this class end already!

_Fine. I give up on your game. Who are you?_

_Come to the rooftop after class. And don’t keep a lady waiting… ;)_

Well I know it’s for sure not Cardin or any of his friends now.. But now who could it possibly be?

Coco? Nah. From what I’ve heard from Yatsu she would be straight up insulting me at this point.

Yang? HAH! That’s a good one.

Ruby? Hell no. Yang would never let that happen in a million years. It has a better chance of being Glynda.

Blake? I dunno, she really tore me down a few nights ago..

I look over at her for a millisecond.

And she’s sill eye-fucking her book…

Nora? No. That’s too much for a mere mortal like myself to deal with. Ren can handle that one. And there wasn’t even one mention of pancakes!

Weiss? Uhhh… It could happen?

Pyrrha? I mean she did hit me with that tree...

None of these options are even plausible! This is ridiculous!

I don’t want to deal with this anymore. With that “rationalization” I can FINALLY push this out of my mind. Thank goodness.

The last few minutes of class go by without a single buzz from the mystery girl and I walk to back to my dorm for my break. Luckily there’s still two hours before the sparring match…

*bzzzt*

_I’m waiting for you Jaune… <3_

Oh joy…...

I really don’t want to go up there… you know what, screw it. Not today. No more of this. Time to be a true huntsman! Time to show my grit and toughness to the world!

_**No.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh! Cliffhanger! But you probably saw this one coming. I am not one for the simple path.


	17. Insane Inferno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder if Pyrrha could use her magnetism semblance to really fuck shit up. Imagine just scattering some iron in the air, sprinkling some fire dust in and turning it into a Gael-force wind storm. Would be quite a chaotic mess, that’s for sure.

“This was a good idea, wasn’t it!”

“It sure was! He looked so scared in there!”

A door creaks open.

The cool breeze of the rooftop stands in contrast to the tense atmosphere of the classroom they just exited.

They are both in cheerful moods seeing the reactions of their prey. Now they sit waiting to close the jaws on it and swallow it whole…

“Has he responded yet?”

“No!”

“He’s probably coming up here right now. Just wait a few minutes.”

Unfortunately, there is no wind chimes or other things out here to keep time. All they have is the digital clocks on their scrolls. Roughly three minutes pass by, and there is still no response.

“Still nothing!”

“Work the charms, Pyrrha. You saw how he reacted all those times before.”

“Alright, I’ll send another message.”

_I’m waiting for you Jaune… <3_

“Done.”

“We have all the material in the world to mentally break him.”

“Oh yes! After this he will finally leave! And I will finally get a break!”

“It will be a grand time. For all of us. Now just get up here Jaune…”

The waiting continues. But not for long.

*Ping!*

Pyrrha’s breathing stops. Her grip begins to tighten. And tighten. It almost looks like she will break the scroll entirely, but her hands release it and return to the typing position.

“What did he say?”

…

The typing begins. But this is not normal typing, this is the typing of someone on a mission. The finger presses down severely on each of the keys, causing a very loud tap. Weiss notices.

“Pyrrha? What are you doing?”

“ **Typing my response** **.** ”

There was more venom in that voice than a Queen Cobra. Even someone as oblivious as Jaune would notice that. If he was here.

Weiss knows that this can mean only one thing. She leans over the scroll to confirm her fears.

_**No.** _

Yep. It actually happened. The one outcome that should have been impossible has occurred. They both thought that there might not be any reactions at all, but to have him drop out like this on the homestretch?

That was not supposed to happen. He was supposed to come up to the roof, and get insulted for hours by both of them. And they would have got to watch Jaune crumple in real time.

But it was not to be. And someone is having some real trouble accepting that reality, if the text she is currently typing is any indication.

Weiss doesn’t read much of it, but… *sigh*

“Pyrrha, hand me the scroll.”

Nothing. The typing continues on.

“ **Pyrrha.** ”

She goes and bumps her in the shoulder. Pyrrha merely slumps down slightly and continues typing. Weiss can’t risk any more taps. Myrtenaster is made of metal…

She’s seen this kind of thing before too. The best thing right now is to just let them exhaust themselves, and then try to talk…

But this is one of the most agonizing waits of her life. The breeze calms down as the typing continues. Seconds turn into minutes. But still her hands glide from letter to letter, unfazed by the world.

Finally, after around 10 minutes, she presses send. The warrior has finally been exhausted of her energy. But there is one last trick…

Pyrrha throws the scroll backwards.

*BONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONKBONK*

The scroll ricochets around like a puck in ice hockey. Weiss quickly jumps and puts down a glyph to stand on. It was a good thing too because at the speed that scroll is going, it is powerful enough to cut through skin.

Pyrrha stands up and silently walks out the door. Somehow the scroll manages to completely avoid both her and the door as it flies along. The door closes, leaving Weiss alone with the high-speed projectile.

Her eyes can only follow the scroll as it hits wall after wall after wall, making a sharp noise with every hit. It even goes into the corner a few times. There are some **D** ecidedly **V** exatious **D** ust chambers that just refuse to do that no matter how she manipulates them…

The wait finally draws to a close as it finally slows down enough to be grabbed. Weiss gets it on the first try and brings it up to eye level.

She begins to properly read the text that was sent…

Her eyes get big. Really fucking big. So big they break outside of her head…

\------

Jaune is still in his dorm relaxing. He’s just about to download the new Grimm Wars 2 DLC; Waking the Tiger. This new DLC adds a lot of new objects, a new “Merlot Island” map, and, the star of the show, a zoo featuring rideable tigers. Yep.

The idea of riding a tiger into a horde of Grimm is irresistible to a teenage boy such as Jaune, so he clicks download almost instantly. The pack is about 69% done when-

*Ping!*

...that happens. It’s from that restricted number again.

“Screw it. Let’s see what she has to say.”

He taps the message. It fills the screen with various words, both bolded and not. What is the message? Oh boy…

“No? **No?!** Did you really just say no? You have a lady literally throwing herself at you and you say **no**? I don’t believe you! You have someone who is willing to butter you up and sing your praises and you **deny her?!** This is a new level of obliviousness for you, Jaune. Can you not see what is right in front of your face? Something that is right there, desperately begging you to claim it as yours? Are you really going to cast that aside like a plastic bag? **Is that really what you think of me?! DO YOU KNOW ALL OF THE PAIN AND SUFFERING THAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH?! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE SAT AND WATCHED YOU BRUSH OFF EVERY SINGLE ATTEMPT TO GET YOU TO EVEN LOOK IN MY DIRECTION?! DO YOU KNOW JUST HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE HELD IN MY TEARS FOR YOU?!**

But it’s all for nothing. You just throw it away like a toy that you outgrew. Let me tell you something, Jaune. **That was not just a toy. That was my heart! That was my heart reaching out for yours, taking a leap of faith, sure that you would catch me… And you didn’t. You let me fall. YOU LET ME FALL INTO A PIT OF SPIKES!!** **AND EVERY TIME YOU COME AROUND, EVERY TIME I HEAR YOUR NAME, MY HEART TWITCHES.**

**And you know what that does? It sends a jolt of pain. It starts screaming out for you, Jaune. IT SCREAMS FOR YOU! IT’S TRYING TO GET YOU TO HELP ME! But of course you don’t see that. You never see that. You never see anything. Because that’s just how you are. Oblivious. And you know what kills me on the inside? You know what just makes the pit of fire that my heart rests in even hotter?!**

**I** **tried to help you Jaune. I really, really did. You know why Ozpin knew about those transcripts? I TOLD HIM. I told him because my naive little mind thought that getting you gone would make you realize just what you had around you. Realize just what you would lose. Just WHO you would lose. And you would come out of your little cocoon of ignorance and fight for it. But of course it blows up in my face. OF COURSE HE KEEPS YOU AROUND! OF COURSE I HAVE TO WATCH YOU FORGET ABOUT ME! I SAW IT IN YOUR EYES TODAY! YOU HAD COMPLETELY WRITTEN ME OFF!**

**But that’s just how it’s going to be, isn’t it. You will get your** **training, fight off the Grimm, and I will just be in the background. A forgotten leaf, not by your side as your loyal partner, oh no, no, no, MY HEART WILL NEVER GET TO HAVE THAT! I AM JUST STUCK FOREVER AS A DISTANT MEMORY! AS A FIFTH WHEEL! AS A MERE STEPPING STONE THAT YOU STOMP ON!** **THIS IS MY PUNISHMENT! THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR BEING AN INVINCIBLE GIRL! THIS IS WHAT I GET!**

**And this is the end too isn’t it! I can’t go back. I can’t reverse what I’ve done.** **Now I am stuck, watching my defeat every single day. This is my life now. You may not believe it, but I still love you, Jaune. Despite what you make me do. Despite how you make me feel, despite your awkwardness, despite your lack of skill, despite everything!** **But even if this all works out in the end, and you survive everything that will be thrown at you like I know you will, you will never take me. I am damaged goods now. I have lost the one thing I wanted more than anything. The fight is over. Over. Over. Over. Over. OVER. OVER. OVER! OVER! OVER! STOP TORMENTING ME! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

. . . . .

After several minutes of processing, Jaune finally finishes staring at the message. This not only confirms the sneaking suspicion he had that Pyrrha was the one who told, but also gives a look into her mental state… yikes.

If he could still see that emotion quadrant it would probably be a massive mess of lines flying all around the screen right now. But what should he do about this? What CAN he do?

He doesn’t know. One thing he does know is that all the love he ever had for her fell out of him the moment that tree hit. It would be even worse to lead someone on than to be oblivious.

Jaune is surprisingly not as fazed as one would think.

“Remember, today is a good day. Good day. This is out of your control. Focus on the spar.”

He decides to practice some stances for now. Grimm Wars 2 is now in the background, destined to remain untapped on this day…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I think I’m gonna put something in one chapter, my mind makes it into two. What the hell man?!


	18. Double-Dipping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Meet the new boss! Same as the old boss!” -The Who, during one of the most popular songs in all of music history

****!!!!Long chapter alert!!!!****

** This one went a fair bit over 2k words, but there was no way I was splitting up the sparring class into two parts. Just doesn’t feel right.**

_ P ing! _

_15 minutes until class!_

That’s the reminder Jaune has set. He has practiced swordplay stances for half an hour now, looking remarkably poised for just a little bit of training.  Maybe it’s his improved mood?

Those aren’t the thoughts in his mind right now though. What is in there is the sparring class. Who is he gonna face against?

It surely won’t be Pyrrha…

Wait, what is he talking about! This is sparring class! He wants a win. And who better to beat than Cardin, the one who tried to extort him around a week ago! Although it feels like an eternity since then…

He can just imagine it now. Dodge the mace and get as many slashes as he can. The hubris will do all the work. No way  will he be a winless loser this time!

Jaune finally stops practicing and  begins to head over. He enters the arena confidently, looking around at the arena. He sees Glynda, who notices him but doesn’t change her expression from the usual “teaching”. Oh well.

He sits on the left. He is actually about 5 or 6 minutes early for this, with only a few  people in the class right now.  This is another one of those where everyone shows up.

He watches the students begin to filter in. Ruby comes in first, looking happy again. Yang follows right behind, in much the same mood.

Then comes Ren and Nora, Ren being his usual self, but Nora looking a little sad… that’s never good. That also means he probably ran out of pancakes. Oh no…

Then Velvet shows up, looking  happy. But not a genuine kind of happy. A forced kind of happy. Jaune can see hints of fear in her eyes. She looks back at him, and that fear seems to come to the surface for a moment before she looks away. That’s odd. Jaune would never hurt anyone! He starts to plead with his eyes but Velvet is already walking away.

Weiss walks in next,  dainty as usual. She sees Jaune almost immediately, and turns away with a disgusted look on her face. She runs and sits on the far right, as far away as possible from him. 

Last to show up, right at the bell, is Coco. She’s dressed up in a special-looking red shirt. She looks around and sees Jaune, and  the smile that donned her face turns into a really big grin. She almost skips her way over sitting right next to Velvet. The fear in Velvet’s eyes comes back again, this time stronger. Poor girl…

G lynda calls attention and everyone turns around. 

“Alright. Let’s see who will be the first two up.” She looks around, noticing Cardin’s always-on smirk.

“Cardin Winchester. You look very ready to join us.”

That smirk does not change, proving her correct.

She looks through the list again.

“How about… Pyrrha Nikos.”

“Pyrrha isn’t here. I wish to volunteer in her place.”

“Alright Ren, you may go up to the arena.” Glynda makes a “crossing out“ kind of marking on her paper.

Jaune looks a little disappointed, but that is just a fleeting feeling. Besides, it’s Ren. He’ll make defeating Cardin look like the easiest thing in the world!

C ardin stands up and walks in the arena, mace dragging on the floor.

Ren calmly does the same, with almost no noise whatsoever. As soon as he gets into the arena, both hands go to each of the dual guns of StormFlower.

Cardin prepares his mace, sporting  the usual smug look on his face, as he always does.

“Begin!”

Cardin goes for the simplest strategy right out of the gate: Swing hard and fast.

If Cardin can get a nice smack in, he could potentially cause Ren to stumble.  And StormFlower’s blades won’t be much of an issue either. He just has to get him down .

Ren manages to shoot before Cardin can even move. This shot is dead center, hitting the fire crystal and causing a big explosion. Cardin has to extend him arm as far away as possible to avoid being burned.

From there, it’s not even a contest.  Cardin is left to just try swinging at him, but  Ren  avoids it all with ease. Shooting with the grace of a ballerina  and the accuracy of a sniper ,  Ren begins to break him down,  hitting (almost) all his weak spots  and even chipping off portions of the mace . Cardin  looks like a headless chicken , as Ren barely even gets touched during the entire encounter. It only lasts just over a minute before Cardin’s Aura drops into the red, ending the match. 

_Lie Ren: 98%_

_Cardin Winchester: 12%_

“Lie Ren is the winner.”

Cardin’s smug face is gone. Jaune could have totally beat him though. Maybe not as gracefully as Ren, but it still would have been exciting.

They both return to their seats. Ren gets some comfort from Nora, but Cardin gets a lot more from the rest of team CRDL. The real surprise is no one even bothers to cheer or anything for this one. Such depressing. Much sad.

Glynda looks back over her list of names, adding two small strokes to the list. Her brow furrows as she scans through the list again.

“Let’s see. How about.. Velvet Scarlatina and Yatsuhashi Daichi.”

“LET’S GO VEL!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Velvet’s ears cringe at the loudness of that scream. She harshly taps Coco on the arm, which shuts her up for but a brief moment.

She walks up with Anesidora out, ready to photograph.

Yatsuhashi walks up with a neutral expression. He looks over toward the Students, and sees Jaune giving him a small smile. A smile appears on Yatsu’s face in turn and he walks up with his weapon out.

But after seeing the ocean blue of Anesidora’s lens, he hides his weapon behind his back. Not gonna let  **that** happen too easily.

Velvet’s timidness is much less noticeable now, just a small tinge showing via her facial expressions. They stand opposite each other, each eagerly waiting for Glynda’s voice to boom out.

“LET’S GO VEL! BEAT HIS ASS!!!!!”

**Not you, Coco!**

“Begin!”  
  


Neither move for a second, before Yatsu tests the waters with a close swing. No movement.

Suddenly, a bluish tint enters the arena. It quickly forms into a near-identical copy of Fulcrum, size and all. But how? Velvet didn’t take any pictures?!

Then everyone realizes. She stored it on film, and brought it up now, just for this match.

**That clever little rabbit.**

Yatsu resets his mind and prepares to use the one advantage he has left; size.

He waits. Velvet goes in for a quick slash to try to knock Fulcrum out of his hands, but a small movement parries that off quite easily.

Yatsu goes on the offensive now, attempting to do the same, but Velvet’s quick movement allows her to dodge,  keeping the sword in hand.

It turns into a swordplay fight for a while, as each one tries to catch the other making a wrong move. But neither do. It’s clear to everyone that Yatsu outranges her, like he does with almost everyone.

They exchange hits, but no one can gain the upper hand.  And then the light blue vanishes from the field.

With Velvet weaponless now, Yatsu plays even more aggressively, trying his hardest to corner her. Luckily Anesidora is made of pretty tough material, as even direct hits from Fulcrum don’t even leave a scratch on it.  The same can’t be said for  V elvet, however.

It’s now a game of cat and mouse, with Yatsu as the hungry, hungry cat. With no real options, Velvet tries a desperation move; going under his legs. Her approach is simple, Get Yatsu to turn around, duck back under and take a quick picture before he can move out of the way.

She runs directly at him. Yatsu swings straight ahead to go for a clean headshot. But she’s not there anymore. He feels her move under him, and turns around to try to catch her coming back up. Wrong move.

This leaves the sword out, easy pickings for Anesidora. She takes the picture and a new sword appears again. Now they are back near equal strength. But  strength will not matter anymore.

Yatsu corners her again and tries to make another set of slashes, but  she  not only ducks under  them , but  also  hits him from behind with her sword. This push, combined with the momentum of Yatsu’s slash, carries him out of the ring. The attempt to stick his sword in and launch himself back up falls  painfully  short.

_Velvet Scarlatina: 38%_

_ Yatsuhashi Daichi: 6 7 % <<OUT OF BOUNDS>> _

“The winner is Velvet Scarlatina.”

T his time, cheering breaks out. That fight was really, really good. Coco is, of course, the loudest of all.

“YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! GOOD JOB VEL!!!!”

Every student is covering their ears for this one. Plus Glynda.

The scream eventually dies down, and hands return to their sides.

Both participants are clearly very tired from this one, but especially Velvet, who collapses back into her spot. Yatsuhashi calmly walks back to his spot near the middle of the audience.

As they sit down, there is a bunch of talking going on about this fight. Even Blake looks up from her book to  launch a few  comment s .  The most prevalent mood is one of confusion. Why these two? Only Glynda will know that one.

Glynda scrolls through the list once again, crossing off the names, and picking the participants for the 3 rd of 4 fights planned today. She finds the first name she was looking for quite fast.  It was second from the top after all.  But who will be the second name? Her brow furrows once again for a moment. If you look really closely, you could see the pair of dice rolling in her mind right now. It lands on 9! Great! Now she has the second name…

“Jaune Arc and Yang Xiao Long.”

The room goes silent. Every person save one is shocked at the fact that these two  students were selected. But the one holdout among the faces has a look of happiness on his. 

It would be unwise to confuse this with arrogance, however. Jaune knows he is going to lose. But he also knows it will be a good match.

Glynda hopes for the same. She wants to see all of three days of training be put to good use.

Jaune walks into the arena more confident than anyone has ever seen him. No slouching, no timid facial expressions, no nothing. Many take notice of this, and even Glynda has to hide a look of  S -surprise.

Yang,  to no one’s surprise, has the same confidence. Except it also comes with the added bonus of an evil-looking grin on her face, almost as if she has been waiting for this moment.

This unnerves Jaune a little bit on the inside, but he successfully keeps it hidden. He looks out to the crowd for reassurance. Most people are either actively cheer ing on Yang or don’t really care (and/or have their face glued in a book), but he sees two defectors, who he quickly recognizes as 

Nora and Yatsuhashi. They are cheering for him.

With good feelings in hand, Jaune stares down Yang on the other side of the arena, still donning that grin. He’s also thinking about some possible strategies. Maybe play low? Let her exhaust herself? All qualifying as ideas.

“ **B-** ”

*ZOOOOOOOM!*

Yang almost false starts taking the first shot. Jaune manages to block it, but he is significantly pushed back, being just an inch or so from being out of bounds. He rushes back off the edge, only to meet her fist. He gets pushed to the side, where Yang is already loading up for another shot.

Looks like the exhaustion strategy is out the window. If he tries to avoid all her rounds, Yang is all but certain to pin him in a corner and go to town on him. And that’s not a fun image to be thinking about.

Jaune tries the only thing he can really do, which is go low. This seems to work for a time, as keeping the shield over his face while crouching down to do some damage  does seem to be working . 

He feels the pain from those rounds even through his shield. But he continues to try with all his might, even taking out one of Yang’s legs with a surprise shield bash. That one got a few gasps from the crowd.  But the dual nature of those gauntlets is really tough to crack.

It’s essentially a 2 on 1 battle with those weapons. Trying to push it in with his shield does nothing.  Trying to hook her arm leaves his face wide open. There’s nowhere to put his sword into to break the gauntlet. Other than the barrel… But that is certain to destroy his only weapon AND probably break his arm, rendering him basically incapacitated.

The shots are getting more and more powerful with each passing second. After about 90 seconds of this torture, even his shield just isn’t enough, and he stumbles. Another round puts him down on the floor, with no real options left. At least he got some damage in…

It’s painful down there. He covers his face, just praying that this will be quick. He can’t resist peeking through.  He sees Yang… doing nothing? She’s just staring over him now, eyes red and the most evil grin he’s ever seen on her face. 

She sees him looking. A quick shot to the ribs makes him cry out in pain.

Everyone can hear it. That’s a cry of surrender.  His body confirms this as his Aura finally drops into the red after taking hits from several punches and rounds from Ember Celica. 

“The winner is Yang Xiao Long!”

_ Jaune Arc:  9 % <<DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!>> _

Yang Xiao Long: 83%

J aune relaxes. But Yang does not.  She continues to stand over him, completely silent. She puts her foot down mere inches away from  the “family jewels”. She puts both her hands out as if to charge up. Glynda notices this first and tries desperately to stop her.

“ **Yang Xiao Long, this match is over! Exit from the arena!** ”

Her whip begins to tense. She really does not want to have to use it.

If Yang heard her, she did not do anything different in response.  Her gauntlets take aim at Jaune’s head and body. There are 4 rounds left in each. There is no way to block them all. Taking them all would cause severe damage to anyone even with full Aura, but one that is at very low Aura like Jaune could face an unthinkable sight.

But no one has any time to think about that idea, as Yang is already putting it into practice live in the arena.  The two shots hit before anyone can move. Glynda activates her whip a nd puts a shield over the gauntlets preventing more shots. 

Yang fires the second set before noticing, sending a shock of pain through both of her arms.

B ut that is nothing compared to the pain Jaune is experiencing right now. He does nothing but scream. Several students cover their ears. Several more are stuck in a look of shock.

He is rushed down to the infirmary again. Without the advantage of being unconscious, he’s feeling every bit of pain. The staff moves fast, but they could never be fast enough for him. The minutes are agonizing. But they get him on painkillers.

Oum seems to be watching over him. No permanent damage. But even the gods can’t intervene in this nightmare…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you he wasn’t gonna be overpowered. >:)


	19. Triple Alliance

It’s two hours after the incident. Jaune is back in the infirmary room in stable condition. Most students are relatively unbothered, but the ones who aren’t sure are passionate. Speaking of which, here’s one right now!

“Miss, he is not allowed to have any visitors ye-”

“ **NO ONE GETS IN THE WAY OF ME SEEING FEARLESS LEADER!!!”**

*VWOOOOM!!*

A door gets hit. It does not give. But that’s a minor inconvenience.

“ **YOU WILL BREAK!** ”

She charges up for a massive spin, and lets her hammer fly. The hinges strain and eventually crack, leaving the door to slowly fall down lockside.

A look of pure terror flashes through his eyes before he sees the trademark pink of one pissed off Nora Valkyrie.

“Hey No- OW!”

Even the painkillers don’t stop the pain entirely. But at least he is not burning every second. But movements are hard…

“Jaune!! Thank goodness you are ok!”

He wisely chooses to just smile at her for now. If she only knew…

Nora hugs him tightly, causing some more dull pain, and then slowly backs away.

“Get better soon Jaune-Jaune! I’m gonna go break some legs!”

“Nora please don-”

“You quit your worrying, Fearless Leader! I’ll break that big-boobied blonde’s legs so bad that she’ll never even look at you again!”

“Pleas- OW!”

“Upp-upp-upp! I’ve got some legs to crack!”

She turns around and begins to run toward the door, only to run into a massive figure in the doorway.

“GAAAH! Get out of my way, mysterious man! I have some legs to break!”

Yatsu is unfazed by the novel disturbance. He looks down to see who it is and suddenly starts to smile.

“Ah, hello Miss.. Nora Valkyrie, isn’t it?”

“Yes sir! And I’m about to go break some legs for Fearless Leader, so get out of my way, mystery man!”

Yatsu looks up at Jaune for confirmation, only to see his eyes pleading to him to not let her go, along with a small “cut” motion with his right hand.

“Jaune has ordered me to not let you pass.”

The happiness on Nora’s face vanishes. She really wanted to break some legs! But Yatsu is not too easy to push down. She looks over to Jaune, seeing him plead, and relents.

“Fine… but I will break YOUR legs if you do not tell me who you are, mystery man!”

The other two occupants laugh. Thank god that bomb is disarmed…

“My name is Yatsuhashi Daichi. Everyone calls me Yatsu.”

“Hey Yatsu! What brings you over to Fearless Leader’s side!”

“I want to ask the same to you.”

Nora thinks for a while before providing her answer.

“Because he is Fearless Leader! I had to make sure he was okay! Did you see how bad he got injured!”

“I did. And that is why you want to break Yang’s legs, I assume?”

“YES! She tried to kill him!”

That’s a bold claim. Both Jaune and Yatsu try to think what to say to counter this…… but can find nothing. She deliberately ignored Glynda’s warnings to stop and deliberately aimed for the head and vital organs. No two ways about it, she was definitely looking to create a corpse on the field.

The air becomes gloomy. Everyone in that room knows that this is not going to be the end, that rock bottom is not even close to upon him…

No one talks. No one wants to talk. No one knows what to say next…

“Hey Nora, do something funny.”

“Now?”

“Yep.”

Nora launches into a random dream she had about pancakes, moving her arms around, swinging her hammer, and generally being very animated. Jaune and Yatsu both start laughing, which quickly morphs into a full on cackling fit.

“And then the monster tried to stick its tentacles into the syrup and I was like, no way Mr. Tentacle Monster! So I swung Magnhild and BAM! It ran away like a scared rat! And then I saw something that looked like a little puppy, and it was yipping around all excitedly, like I get when Renny brings me pancakes, and then it jumped up and-

“Nora? There you are. Let’s go back to the dorm.”

Jaune stares at him. Yatsu stares at him. Nora stares at him. Each with a look of annoyance, a “What’s he doing here ruining this moment!” look on their faces. Ren wisely decides to kick the can down the road.

“Come back when you’re done Nora. We need to talk again. *sigh*”

He walks away. The footsteps get quieter and quieter before ceasing to be heard by the people in the room. Only then does Nora return back to her story.

“So that puppy jumped up and licked my face! And then I reached down to try to pet it, and it was icky! Of course the pancakes are out of my mind now, as I wanted to find out what this adorable little puppy had on his fur, and I looked and it was made of sap! Like that stuff from Forever Fall?! Anyway I took a taste of the sap on my hands, and it growled at me! How dare it! I was just gonna get a taste, I wasn’t gonna eat him! I saw the look on his face though and he was so sad! Like someone said they were gonna play fetch with him and never threw the ball! So I just started…”

The cackling returns. But no one pays any mind to that, nor of the fantastical nature of Nora’s story. Not with the alternative being thoughts about Jaune’s potentially horrible future. This day is going to end on a high note, even if that note is dragged kicking and screaming up there.

Yatsu eventually buts in with another fun story about an adventure featuring a certain clothing fiend…

“Ok, you know how there is a clothes shop close the edge of Vale, right?”

Nora nods but Jaune does not.

“I’ll tell you more about it in the future Jaune. Anyway, one time I was forced to go with Coco to that store. I am not someone who is very interested in clothes, so I was just following her around and looking at the few other items the store had in stock. Thankfully for me, Coco always gets a one track mind in a clothes store, so after she started trying things on, I left to go find something more interesting to do. I saw an area, full of all different species of flowers. I almost lost myself in that area of the store. Anyway, while I was looking around in the carnations, I see someone get thrown into some bags of seeds that were lying around. Naturally, I had to look over and see where he came from, and there I saw Coco, with a rainbow shirt on, and a face redder than a tomato.”

Nora laughs at the visual imagery.

“So I went over and asked her why she threw the clothesboy that far away, and she stretches the shirt out and points at something. I do not see what she is pointing at, so I look closer, and you know what it was?

“What?”

“There was a fingerprint on it, from the clothesboy.”

“She threw him out over that?!” both Jaune and Nora say.

“Yes. It took the entire rest of the team pleading with them to not get banned from all of their shops. We still can not go inside that particular one, unfortunately.”

Yatsu adds on another story about flowers or something, but it keeps everyone’s interest for a while.

“That’s sad. But also kinda hilarious. One of my sisters had something like that. I was about 8 years old or so, and I was in a store like you were with my sister Lexi, and I was bored out of my mind, so I went to the toy aisle and got a squirt gun. So I take off the packaging, and put some water in it from a bottle. So now I’m walking around, pretending I’m looking for some evil Grimm to spray into oblivion, and I see Lexi, wearing what was apparently a brand new shirt that said “Don’t mess with the hair” or something stupid like that, so guess what. I spray her with it, and ruin the shirt.

“What a surprise.”

“Pfft! Hahahahahahahaha!”

And this kind of thing goes on for hours, trading story after story after story across the three of them. The pain that Jaune is feeling recedes into the background as laughing and general happy feelings fill the room. It is deep into the evening before their bodies finally give up and fall asleep, all blessed with some nice, happy dreams.

\----??????? POV----

_**12:30 AM** _

_Just rough him up a bit. Take his scroll away or something._

_Yeah! Something small to make him sad come tomorrow._

I walk through the hallways and see Jaune’s room. The door is lurched over on the floor. But why? Who could even do such a thing?

I look inside and find my answer…

Jaune’s over sleeping in the hospital bed. But what intrigues me is the two other faces in the room.

One is Yatsuhashi, which we knew about from earlier. But the other is new.

Nora.

I thought Ren could control her! Turns out he can’t…

I still have a mission, so I look for something to take. I find his scroll and pocket it.

I return back to the dorms, but I let the group know of what I found before coming back…

_Girls?_

_What is it?_

_Did you take anything?_

_Is he done crying out in pain yet?_

_..._

_**There’s another one.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a bit too invested in the little stories I made up for them. I think you can make a good guess as to what I am building towards by now. But don’t worry, there is still far to go before then.


	20. Supercooled

A door is forced open, and two occupants enter through, both of them pissed off.

The more bombastic one is sat down in front of a remarkably familiar desk. The more disciplined one goes behind her and opens another door, walking to the other side.

A stare down commences.

“Yang Xiao Long. I’m sure I don’t need to explain why I brought you here.”

Nothing on the other end.

“Alright then, I’ll explain it for you. You participated in a sparring match against a fellow blonde by the name of Jaune Arc. You not only soundly defeated him in combat, you continued the fight after his Aura dropped into the red. You ignored multiple warnings by yours truly to stop, and then proceeded to fire multiple of your combat rounds right into his head and body. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Not even a millisecond passes before Yang’s response, dripping in venom.

“ **He deserved it.”**

“He deserved it? That is your justification? Please elaborate on that, Xiao Long. Do not leave anything out.”

“He is unworthy of being at this school. He has no combat ability and no leadership experience. He cheated to get here. He deserves to fail. He deserves to be hurt. Hurt again and again until he gets it through his thick skull that he is unwelcome.”

“That is your belief? In that case, how come he is the one who has done the most damage to you in any sparring match? Unless you believe that the other two you have faced have no combat ability.”

The other two, being Ren and Weiss, definitely do not fit that description.

“It was luck. The same thing that has allowed someone like him to be around up to this point.”

“Luck? Miss Xiao Long, you and I both know it was not luck that kept him here. Jaune was chosen to stay here and he will remain. You, on the other hand, may not.”

“You are lucky that he did not die out there. If he had, you would be not only expelled, but going to prison as we speak. But now your fate rests in the hands of the staff. Come with me, Xiao Long.”

Yang does not get a choice, as she is dragged behind Goodwitch into the office proper.

The two blondes march (well, one of them does, the other flops around like a fish) into a hallway with some doors. Glynda stops them in front of the second one.

“You are to be put in here while the staff decides your fate. I advise you not to cause any damage in here if you want to stay. It was fun talking to you, Xiao Long!”

The door is slammed shut and locked.

Glynda walks further down the hallway into Ozpin’s true headquarters.

“Hello Glynda. I trust that you have dealt with her?”

“Yep. She’s stuck in the room.”

“Good.”

“I brought her scroll in for analysis. Here will probably tell us why she really did this.”

Glynda pulls out Yang’s scroll, which was taken earlier, right after the end of the fight. She puts it into a special machine that will slurp up all the data from it. It takes a while, though.

“While we are waiting, I assume you have decided what to do with her?”

“Yes. It was a hard decision.” The evidence needed for this is all around her, with many papers strewn about on the floor and empty coffee cups on his desk.

“And that is??!”

“I’m not expelling her.”

Glynda does all she can to hide her extreme distaste at his decision, but her voice betrays her.

“Please, **explain.** ”

“This attempted murder of hers should be a good learning experience. Maybe with this failure, she will learn the folly of her ways. And this entire thing will all blow over. Expelling her will put a target on all of our backs, and our reputation will be stained. I can not let that happen.”

“ **Are you insane? You think someone like Yang is capable of learning something like that?** ”

“Yes. If Jaune can learn how to be a proper huntsman despite all of the things happening to him, Yang can learn how to control her anger. I am not changing my decision on this.”

“Alright then, how do you suppose she will learn?”

“Simple. She will be banned from all upcoming events, including the Dance. She will also have her gauntlets temporarily confiscated.”

“What about Vytal?”

“We will review her progress a few days before it begins. She should be cooled down by then.”

“...Fine. I trust your judgment.” Glynda does not trust his judgment. She is able to hide that feeling now that she herself has cooled down. The last thing she wants to do, however, is let Yang go after Jaune again right off the bat. She can still defeat him just with her punches alone…

“That will be swell. Don’t inform Yang of these developments quite yet. Sit down and relax, you deserve it after what has happened.”

“I will take you up on that.” And she relaxes.

In the closed room. Yang has essentially shut down. Parts of her mind are screaming at her to try to break out and go find a “punching bag” to hit.  But this can not happen.

This room is the second-most reinforced room in the entire academy, right behind the secret vault that holds the relic. It would take an entire team of huntsmen to break out of this.

Left with no options, and no scroll to keep her entertained, all she can do is stew. And boy does she. Many thoughts run through her mind, about Jaune, about the fight, about team RWBY, about everything these past few days.

It’s a long, long process. So long in fact that she still is not done when the door opens over two hours later.

“I have good news for you, Miss Xiao Long. You are not being expelled.”

Glynda waits for relief to come across her face. But it remains static. This normally would not be of too much concern for her, but what makes this time different is the facial expression she has; eyes glued shut, hands curled up into fists so tightly they would be turning white under those bandages.

“However, I will have to take your gauntlets away for the time being. You have also been banned from future events, including the Beacon Dance. Consider yourself lucky.”

She reaches her hand out for the gauntlets, whip in her other hand ready for the inevitable fight. But to Glynda’s shock, there is none. Yang carefully takes them off and hands them to her.

“I hope this teaches you a lesson. You are free to go now.”

Glynda leaves the room. But Yang stays in place, continuing to stew. Many minutes pass as she remains sitting in place, completely unmoving. After a long wait, she finally stands up, lets out a disgruntled sigh, and slowly walks out of the room.

A metaphorical sphere wades through the hallway, with the normally bombastic blonde right at the center. Her facial expressions scream “Don’t talk to me”, so no one makes an attempt. Everyone makes sure to steer clear, not wanting to become the second coming of Jaune. This makes the path easy, which after a long walk, finally terminates at the team RWBY door.

Luckily it remains unlocked.

“Hey sis ho-…”

RWB all look at each other with confused expressions on their faces. It must not have gone well in there. It gets even more confusing when Yang climbs into the bed and drags the covers over herself, vanishing under a mass of sheets.

“Yang, is there anything you want?” Blake attempts to get her out of her funk.

Nothing.

“Yang?!”

Still nothing.

“Answer me!”

A wall screams out in pain as Yang punches it. A clear imprint remains in the wall.

Blake sighs. Nothing is going right today.

“Please Yang, we want to help you!”

*mumble mumble*

“What?”

“ **You can’t.** ”

“Why not?”

“I have to solve this myself. I need a break from Remnant right now.”

She then turns over in the bed and screams into her pillow. Not getting anymore out of her today.

They all remain silent for a while. After a few minutes another muffled scream radiates through the room.

“We can’t let her stay like this. Ruby, what does she like?”

“Uh… hot guys?”

Everyone else stares at Ruby.

“Uh…. That lemon cake! Yeah!”

“Good enough. Let’s go!”

All three run out of the room to grab Yang some lemon cake.

“Can we have about 5 slices of lemon cake please?!”

The lunch person sighs and gets out some cake. What is it with this goddamn lemon cake?

“Here you go.”

“Thanks!” Ruby runs back to the dorm with all 5 pieces. Weiss and Blake follow behind.

They rush through the door and set the cake down on the table next to  Yang .

Another muffled scream comes from her pillow, before she grabs a piece of cake.

“...Success?”

Close enough.

But this one act of food does not solve the real problems afoot…

Jaune is  STILL  not gone yet. They have to think of a plan, with Yang or without.

But what to do now? Every plan that anyone has come up with has failed so far.

Clearly this will require a more coordinated effort…

With Yang… out of commission for the moment, Blake chooses to take the lead. But where to meet?!

Can’t be in here, Yang has to recover.

Can’t be in the NPR dorm, Nora.

Can’t be in Coco’s Dorm, Yatsuhashi  will spill everything .

Rooftop Maybe? Blake almost goes through with that plan but remembers what Cardin did all that time ago. Not gonna risk reintroducing a variable not in the equation.

That leaves the outside of Beacon, and The Emerald Forest. Both are basically no risk. The Emerald Forest is far away from any potential prying eyes, and, with at least 4 excellent huntresses in the area, no Grimm can get in the way. The decision is made, and the text sent.

_Everyone! We are meeting in the Emerald Forest at midnight. You know what it’s going to be about. Show up._


	21. Pot, Meet Kettle

The forest is as quiet as it has ever been. The forest, now with a boomerang-shaped path  cutting through it, has much less Grimm inside than before. They have become a little bit more cautious after the metal ball of doom rolled around.

They would probably be telling stories to their Grimm descendants about the night that the metal ball rolled through, tearing down hundreds of trees in its wake. It was set to cut the forest in twain until it stopped halfway. Then a comet was seen, and the ball turned around, going out of the forest, never to return.

But Grimm can’t talk. Or have babies. Sucks to be them.

This peacefulness was disturbed, not by a Grimm, but by three pairs of footsteps. The red, white, and black trio approach the forest entrance. The first thing that catches their eye is  the U-shaped curve that cuts through it. It's filled in with some plants now, but it still stands in stark contrast to the tall trees of the rest of the forest.

The red one drags out 7 logs and puts them in a circle surrounding a nearby stump.  They wait around before another arrives, this one with scarlet hair. 

The four take their seats and wait as the night continues on. The shattered moon of Remnant sets light down on this group, but not enough. The black and scarlet ones go to gather some wood. Luckily fallen branches and twigs are absolutely everywhere. They come back not a minute later with arms full. The moon has not risen very far, but the colorful quartet down below do not follow a lunar clock.

“No one else is going to show, huh?” The black one starts off. 

“It’s not looking like it.” The white one continues.

“No matter! They aren’t important anyway!” The red one exclaims with a shine to her voice.

This improves everyone’s spirits. 

“Did someone say I wasn’t important?!” a new voice says, coming into the clearing in full camouflage.

“Coco!” Ruby and Pyrrha exclaim.

“You really think I wouldn’t show up?! I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Sorry for showing up a little late, I had to find the right clothes! You know how it is.”

The others don’t really know how it is, but don’t question it.

(A/N:  The conversation from here on is color coded for your viewing convenience and my convenience of not having to write 100 variations of “___ said.” That shit is painful for me. You’ll get who’s who pretty fast,  but if you can’t tell go to the “Just a RWBY Color Test” fic.  And if I didn’t color code this it would be harder to figure out than a crossword puzzle designed by Satan high on LSD. Which, incidentally, is the guy writing this fic. )

Blake starts everything off.

“Ok. It’s beginning to look more and more like Jaune will not be leaving this academy. What is our next move?”

Everyone jumps in at once, making it impossible to hear.

“ **One at a time, please!”**

“Let’s shoot his arm off!”

“Yeah! Let’s put some rounds in him!”

“That idea is unworkable! Did you already forget what happened a few hours ago?!”

“That’s because sis got too angry. I won’t let that happen to me!”

“I’m sure Yang said that before the spar.”

“Are you implying I can’t control myself!”

“I remember when someone tried to take your weapon away. You sure didn’t look controlled during that.”

“That time was different! I was less mature back then!”

“That was three weeks a-”

“ **Girls, please!** Since you can’t stop interrupting, how about everyone write their idea down on a piece of paper.”

Blake then gets out a piece of paper and hands it to Ruby.

She writes an idea down, then she gives it to Pyrrha.

All the other 4 members write down an idea, and the paper comes back to Blake, who begins to read it.

_Snipe him with Crescent Rose!_

_Lock him in a room!_

_Burn his clothes!_

_Make him a pet!_

Blake slowly turns her head and stares at the heiress who wrote that last one.

“What?”

Blake gives her the “Really?” look.

“He could be like Klein!”

“But Klein was useful. What could Jaune do?”

Weiss has no real answer.

“This is why he is still around. None of you can coordinate!”

“It’s not my fault! I got Weiss to help me!”

“But what about the rest of us!”

“You would have shot him!”

“And?”

“I don’t want him to be hurt that bad!”

“Why not? You want him gone, don’t you?”

“Not like that!”

“Coco, if we hurt him too much, he’ll be surrounded by bodyguards everywhere, and then we can’t do anything.”

“It’s a bit late for that one, now isn’t it!”

“No. You really think one attack will get someone guards? Weiss is the heiress to the largest company on the planet and doesn’t have any.”

“Who would be dumb enough to try that?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Then talk about this! Why have you not done your part?!”

“What are you talking about! I helped Pyrrha out! She wouldn’t have done anything without my insight!”

“All I saw was her doing the typing, Weiss. You just coasted along while she did it all.”

“Hey! She told me what to say!”

“And you’re telling me you couldn’t do that on your own? How sad.”

“Coco, plea-”

“Shut it, scaredy-cat. You haven’t left your book these past three days.”

“Yeah! Where’s your idea, oh smart and sneaky one?!”

“I don’t want the spotlight.”

“You’re telling me you can’t sneak around and trap him?”

Blake thinks for a response, and that is all it takes.

“See. She isn’t even prepared.”

“I don’t see you preparing either.”

“If you could get him alone, I would. You and I both know that that gun will destroy everything that moves.”

“Then why are you here if you aren’t going to even try?!”

“Why don’t you try at him then, Miss ‘Invincible Girl?’?!”

Tensions are close to boiling over. A smaller Grimm peeks its head into the opening, looking for an easy meal, but sees the harbinger of metal and runs away.

Another girl joins the massive ruckus, but she is not initially noticed by the four that are locked in a heated battle.

“Hello Yang, glad you could join us.”

“How’s this whole meeting thing going?”

“Well……”

“...Please! I wouldn’t do something that stupid! I am professional!”

“Says the one who devoured a lemon cake like a hungry hungry hippo!”

“You’re one to talk! I saw you pour the crumbs into your mouth!”

“I don’t see you wiping your plate squeaky clean!”

“What is with you people and lemon cake?!”

“You haven’t had the new lemon cake yet?”

“ **WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT CAKE?!?!** ”

“Ruby started it!”

“She did start it.”

“ **IT DOESN’T MATTER!** Do any of you have any plan at all?!”

“I still insist on shooting him!”

“I want to shoot him too!”

“We got a paper here.”

Yang reads the paper of ideas.

Weiss gets the “Really?” look for the second time tonight.

“I already talked about this!”

“Oh don’t worry, your little idea does ALLLLL the talking.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“And I thought I had it bad for Vel!”

Weiss refuses to play this game anymore. She just goes silent.

“How about this, we just take all his weapons away! He’s screwed without a weapon!”

“That’s already happened. His weapon got bent.”

“It  did?!”

“Yes. It would be useless to take it now.”

“Just take something else then!”

“Like his scroll!”

“Why his scroll?”

Weiss merely shakes her head.

“Because he doesn’t need it!”

“Then go then! And take Weiss with you!”

“I’m not participating in that.”

“Fine then, I’ll do it myself!”

Pyrrha leaves for Jaune’s hospital room.

“oooooooooooKAY then, anything else you got?”

“Also Blake, where is your idea?”

“I’m not up for executing any ideas. I prefer to be in the background.”

“That’s understandable. Have you tried to help anyone?”

“Uh… no…”

“See! She’s barely worth anything!”

“Ruby, you can’t judge someone on something as small as that.”

“Yes I can!”  
“Even if she can’t she’s not too far off!”

“I don’t care who has and hasn’t been helpful. We all have made many, many mistakes. Let’s just put our heads together and get this done.”

“Alright, what is your idea?”

“The dance is coming up, right?”

“Mhmm.”

“So, how about we screw with him then? Either he’ll show up alone, or he’ll hang out in his dorm alone. Easy pickings.”

“What do you suggest we do?”

“I was hoping all of you would sort that out, I can’t go!”

“We tried!”

“We really did!”

“Think about how much we could rub it in his face.”

“Yeah it would be nice to do that, **now wouldn’t it!** ”

“You’ll get a chance next year!”

“I’m 15!”

“What if he doesn’t end up caring about it? Or he doesn’t go at all? Can’t rub it in his face then.”

“That’s why I say shoot him!”

“Are we really goi-”

*Ping*

Everyone’s scroll pings at the same time.

_Girls?_

_What is it?_

_Did you take anything?_

_Is he done crying out in pain yet?_

_**There’s another one.** _

A picture is shown of Jaune fast asleep in his hospital room. This time however, two other people are in that room, also sleeping. One being Yatsuhashi, sleeping in a chair, and the other, the more important one, being Nora, who has leaned onto Yatsuhashi’s shoulder during her sleep in another nearby chair. Magnhild is on the ground next to her for right now, on the opposite side of the bed compared to Crocea Mors, which, as reported earlier, is distinctly bent.

“You are fucking kidding me…”

“Of course he gets someone else on his side. How?!”

“...This is another inconvenience, but we must still continue on.

So I ask again, what is our next move?”

The group goes silent, as they realize they still have nothing on that front.

Blake sighs. “Of course…”

“Alright. How about this, tomorrow let’s just go over to him during lunch and ruin his day with something. That’s pretty simple. Anyone object?”

“Nope”

“Nope”

“No”

“Nope”

“What are we gonna do?!”

“Take his lunch.”

“That’s it?!”

“I don’t see you coming up with anything better!”

With Coco’s silence, the meeting concludes. Was it a success?

Regardless of that, Pyrrha gets texted the result to ensure she doesn’t come back to emptiness.

_Meeting is over. No big plan but we got good ideas. Go back to the dorms._

_P.S. Can you get some lemon cake for Coco tomorrow? She really needs to try that crumbly goodness._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don’t know how long it took for me to get that multicolored text. The things I do for you all.


	22. The Leading Zero

_**Beacon Infirmary** _

_**9:00 AM** _

\----Jaune POV----

Ugh… my sleep was so comfortable…

My eyelids open against my will.

“Augh… What the hell is this!”

I’ve woken up in a small shack. Inside the shack is just me, some candlelight, and a mysterious weapon I can not place.

I look up and hear an alarm ringing. Great.

I smash that snooze button and the entire clock breaks.

“Good thing you’re up!”

I look over and see… my father?

“Dad? What are you doing here?”

“To see you off on the start of your mission! You’re killing some Grimm on the Northern edges of Sanus, remember?”

I look through my memories and somehow find something about Ozpin telling me I was going on a mission. Where did that even come from?!

“Oh yeah I remember. Thanks for coming here Dad, you don’t know how happy this makes me.”

I am feeling pretty happy now. I go and hug him, grateful that he has stuck around with me despite everything.

He hugs me back. The warm feeling gives me comfort. However it goes away after only a few seconds.

“No time for hugs, son. Go kill those Grimm!” He hands me the mystery weapon.

I feel a shove and out the door I go. Well, guess it’s time to face the music…

I walk into the outside. What greets me is an unending void of black trees.

I guess this is why no one lives here…

I walk slowly to the edge of the tree line and stare. Yep, nothing but black.

“I guess it’s just you and me, forest.”

“ **Who said you were alone?** ”

Wait, I recognize those voices! It’s Yatsu and Nora!

“Hey! Thank god you two are here.”

Nora “Why wouldn’t we be? We were sent here with you after all!”

Yatsu simply smiles. Maybe this won’t be so bad!

I get hit on the shoulder.

“Well, let’s go! Time’s a wastin! I can’t cook any pancakes until we’re done!”

Yatsu walks forward a few steps.

“Alright then! Let’s go!” I decide to meet it head on with a sprint, Nora and Yatsu follow me.

It’s pretty dark. There is barely enough light to see in front of you. But that doesn’t stop us. We enter deeper into the forest, finding mostly skeletons, but also some fun stuff like fruit. I’m surprised it can grow this far up. But fruit is fruit, and damn is it good.

Mostly following the fruit, we come to a clearing. Here is a small opening with another shack, and beyond that, even more dense forest. I can see some Grimm scales peeking out of it.

“Alright Fearless Leader, whose legs do we break first!”

I look around that area, and at about 11 o’clock there is a fallen over tree that is a good hiding spot.

“Over here!” We run toward there and hide behind it. We look around. There’s too many types of Grimm to count. I would study it more, but before I could think a small little Grimm comes up and attacks my leg. Easy pickings.

I stab it with my weapon and it lets out a cry before dying.

Everyone has to cover their ears, but since I was closest mine are bleeding. That Grimm sure was loud…

Loud enough to get the attention of every other Grimm in the forest.

“Fuck.”

They are about to ask what happened when they notice it too. Uncountable amounts of Grimm, all looking right at us.

Instantly we ready into attack positions. It takes no time at all before the Grimm charge us.

We all get tunnel vision as the Grimm begin to go down. It’s useless to count, as one turns to ten turns to thirty thousand over the course of an hour.

Nora’s strong hammer kills dozens of Grimm in one swing, Yatsuhashi’s giant sword kills dozens that are close to him, and makes countless more stumble on the ground, and my… uh… ranged attack? ...creates straight lines of pure Grimm guts.

We’ve all killed thousands by this point. Nora’s hammer is dented beyond belief, Yatsuhashi’s sword has broke from stabbing the ground too many times, and I don’t even have my weapon anymore. But still we press on.

My body just wants to shut down, too tired from all the Grimm killing. It seems that’s about to happen too, at least my death will be-

“Boop!” Typical Nora. Somehow in between hammer swings she taps my nose and jolts me awake.

VWOOOM!!

But even Nora’s boops can only do so much. We are forced out of the forest, retreating into the shack as a last resort.

This is hopeless! There’s still too many! How can there be this many!

“AHHHHHHHHHH-”

“Boop!”

Nora’s not gonna let me succumb like that. The Grimm make short work of the shack and I can see their long, spiky teeth. Guess this is the end….

“Any last words?”

“Boop!”

“Boop!”

Even Yatsu? That’s something. Then the first bite happens. I feel my aura leech out of me. Everything gets darker and darker, it’s about to go black…

I spare one last thought to my dad before I go. I hope he survives this horde somehow.

But then, a blinding white light! Grimm screams penetrate the air. This is it! This is the-

“Boop!”

A shiver travels down my spine. Where am I?

Wait, why are my eyes opening, what even-

...They’re here?

“It is about time you woke up.”

Another cold shiver travels down my spine.

“Yeah! I’ve been booping your nose for the past five minutes!”

“Why? I wanted to sleep!”

“Because you had some food to eat, Fearless Leader!”  
  


She points down. I look that way and see… pancakes? Yep, a stack of four pancakes with some syrup on it, along with an omelette that looks like the most tasty thing that has ever been produced on Remnant.

“Well?! Eat it already! Before I eat it!”

I grab the fork and chow down. This little chow down quickly turns into a full on binge as I chew almost non-stop, taking in the pancakes and omelette like a vacuum cleaner stuck on high.

Yatsu pipes up with a “fun” fact halfway through;

“There was originally five pancakes there. But Nora ate one of them despite my attempts to stop her.”

Nora slowly turns her head to look at him.

“Hey! It’s your fault! You made them too good! Almost as good as the pancake company!”

“Pancake company?”

I gotta interrupt because this will take hours…

“Too complicated to explain **right now.** But trust me, that’s a compliment.”

Yatsu just returns to his normal expression.

I look back down to get some more food and- it’s gone?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I get a slightly depressed look on my face.

Yatsu notices first. “I can cook you more if you want to.”

Depression cured! “That would be great, but not right now. I want to get out of here.”

Yatsu goes to get a nurse to take out the IV and set him free.

Shortly after he returns with one freshly minted nurse, ready to go!

“Yatsuhashi here said you were ready to leave?”

I nod. The nurse comes and takes a quick scan of vitals, making sure everything is alright. She puts up all the equipment without a single mark on the paper! YES!  
  


“You are released!” The nurse leaves through the still broken doorway.

I bolt out of the infirmary into the main hall. Nora and Yatsuhashi follow behind at a more relaxed pace.

The first thing I do is properly test my movements. I move my arms, legs, chest… and only a very dull ache is there to greet me. Man Beacon’s hospitals are good…

Now to get back to my dorm. I don’t even break a sweat as I walk down there. People are pretty surprised as I make my way down, probably because of how fast I recovered.

I make it over. The door is closed. No matter, I’ll just get out my scroll and unl-

It’s not there. Where is it?!

I search my pockets and don’t find it. I search them again, this time with more energy. Nope.

Dammit, where is it!

“You forgot this.” Thank Oum for Yatsuhashi. He’s helping me out once again by bringing me my… weapon? That’s bent?

“Uhh… thanks.”

Well, I got nothing left to try so..

I try hitting it with Crocea Mors (or at least, the corpse of it) in desperate hopes of it breaking and letting me through.

Predictably, it doesn’t work.

“Ugggghhh…” What do I do now?

I think to myself about what’s coming up today. There’s a Dust class in about 10 minutes…

Do I want to go there? I mean, it was somewhat entertaining last time, even with all the **distractions…**

You know what? Since I don’t have anything fun to do, and I can’t train with no weapon, I’ll go.

I head over back to the Dust class with paper and pencil in hand, this time more determined than ever to take some good notes and learn properly.

_**One extremely informative Dust Class later...** _

That class was very interesting to say the least. After she mixed the fire and air dust to create a fire tornado, I was just floored. Dust really is great! How have I missed out on it for so long?

But I only dwell on the many uses of Dust for a moment before I realize that I am back in the same situation as before; Nothing to do.

I can’t even buy a new weapon without access to my dorm to grab the funds… *sigh*

Lunch is still an hour or so away… it’s tacos this time. My stomach rumbles right at the end of that thought, even though I just had pancakes earlier, making me sigh once again in annoyance.

I remember back a few days ago. Maybe I can go to the gardens and get that nice dream again…

I go down there and sit down on an empty bench. The garden look as beautiful as ever. The first place my eyes check is the area where Yatsu’s flowers were. And boy is it worth looking.

These flowers stand above all the rest, once crushed and nearly lifeless, now not only proudly standing, but leading the scenery with their bright colors. Yatsu is a really good grower.

But my mind still rests on one problem; how do I not miss lunch, and the rest of the classes, and everything else?

My mind quickly remembers one thing from those camping trips; keeping time without a clock.

I already know what time it is (about 11:00 AM) and at noon, the sun will be straight overhead, which means the shadow will be straight. With that in mind, I find a stick and stab it in the ground in an empty area.

With this problem solved, my mind finally, finally, **finally,** relaxes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe it was a few too many Grimm that were killed. But it was his dream, so, you know, why not have a little over-exaggeration? ;)


	23. Pathing Troubles

_**1:00 PM** _

\----*----

The plants in the garden have no equal. These flowers are guaranteed to stun anyone who sees them for the first time.

They stand in great contrast to most of the rest of the academy, which is mostly a generic “grey” color. One of these flowers moves from its normal place, picks up a stick and begins to uhhhh… leave it on the ground? And go into the academy?

Ok, he’s not really a flower. But he might as well be with all the growth that he has gone through. There have been several attempts to cut him down, but, like a plant rooted in the sidewalk, he finds a way to grow back. Although the clippers remain pointed at his neck, one can not refute his resiliency.

But will he get the chance to stun his onlookers? One can only wait and see. But as he goes though the line and picks up 2 mouth-watering tacos, the future sure looks a little more colorful.

Our resident flower sits down in the lunchroom, but this go-around he is not alone. Yatsuhashi, the resident keeper of flowers, is with him.

“Hey Yatsu. Where’s Nora?”

“She had to talk with Ren right now.”

“Understandable, He was probably worried about her all day.”

Yatsu nods in affirmation. What he doesn’t tell him is just how many texts Ren had sent.

Yatsu is having, as usual, something of his own design. What is it this time? Well, how about a plate of shredded chicken, mixed in with a bit of salsa? Simple, but very effective.

Jaune looks over at the dish with wonder. That sure looks good…

“You can not have this one. Remember, you owe me some cooking!”

Oh well. Guess Jaune has to settle for the consolation prize of some good tacos. He begins to eat one. A flood of flavor quickly overwhelms his taste buds. A smile breaks out on his face.

“You look like you are enjoying the tacos.”

“Yep, they are good. You should try them!”

“No thank you. Cooking not only gives me tasty food, it also gives me peace.”

Who’s to argue with that?

“ **Oum dammit!** ” Laughter immediately follows. Jaune looks over and sees a peculiar sight;

Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, Coco, and Velvet are all over at one table, each with straws in their hands. All but Weiss and Velvet are currently laughing their asses off, Weiss because she drew the longest straw, and Velvet, who is currently glued inside her scroll watching something unknown, with her straw clearly bent from stress.

Weiss leaves the table and begins walking.

Jaune on the other hand is diving hand first back into his taco.

He gets several good bites in before a draft of cold air comes up on his back. He doesn’t notice at first, but Yatsu looking up over him piques his attention.

“Weiss? What are you do-”

“ **Hand over your lunch.** ”

“Wha- No! No way am I gonna do that!”

“ **It would be the best thing for both of us if you hand it over.”**

Jaune can not respond before she takes it, leaving him with only a single bite remaining from his original taco. Meanwhile the Schnee is walking away, still with a grumpy look on her face despite achieving her goal with minimal resistance.

The anger within him for letting this happen begins to bubble up, but then he notices the little bit of taco left in his right hand. He eats it, and the flavor flows through his mouth once again, pushing the anger to the back of his mind for now.

“That really just happened…?”

“It looks like it did.”

“This sucks…”

“That it does. But this is your chance to prove that you are better than them. If you stay above their level, they will eventually realize they are running into a brick wall, and quit. And then you will be the victor.”

“Somehow I doubt that…”

Jaune looks over at them and sees, as before, all except Weiss and Velvet in various states of happiness, clearly having just cheered.

“Do not worry. Focus on yourself, not on them. You can not change them, you can change you.”

Jaune pauses to process what he has said for a moment. After a while, though, his brain just accepts it and moves on.

“Thanks Yatsu. You always have something thought-provoking to say.”

“You are very welcome. But I must tell you, you still will not be having any of my food.”

Jaune doesn’t really care. Having something to distract from them is enough of a reward. The rest of the lunch flies by and he leaves, ready to continue with the day once again.

But still no scroll…

There’s only one place he can go to get a new scroll, which is the Headmaster’s office.

With a bored sigh, he turns down that direction.

His office is surprisingly far away, but the walk feels shorter than it truly is. Jaune enters and sees Ozpin going through papers again. That stack is only a few inches tall this time, allowing Jaune to easily see his hands moving at breakneck speed to go through them.

He sits down and waits. Ozpin sees him early, leaving his stack aside for now.

“Hello Jaune. What do you want?”

“I need a new scroll…”

“A new scroll? What happened to the old one?”

“It got lost somewhere. I looked for it all through my hospital room and couldn’t find it. And now I’m locked out of my dorm so…”

“That is quite unfortunate. I will get your new scroll prepared. Sit here while I get it ready.” Ozpin gestures to a nearby line of seats on the wall, which Jaune immediately goes to.

He sits down and stares at the stack of paper, now standing motionless on the desk. Unfortunately, he can’t read any of it.

After a while of waiting, and a thorough counting of imperfections on the ceiling [3038 to be exact], Ozpin returns with his brand new scroll in hand.

“Here is your new scroll. Most of the data successfully transferred over. Be sure not to lose this one, as the next one you lose comes out of your pocket.”

Jaune stopped paying attention at “Here” and is currently scrolling through all his apps and settings, making sure everything is right where he left it. They even got his home screen background! It is a picture of Saphron making a silly face.

“Jaune, I understand your interest in your new scroll, but I do need you to leave my office.”

Has he sat there that long? He looks up and sees that it has been around 10 minutes.

“Oh shit, sorry!” He runs out of the office and speeds down the hallway straight to his dorm, pushing his scroll up to the lock. The sounds of the motor moving to unlock the door is music to his ears.

He runs in and jumps onto the bed, now prepared to check the final, arguably most important thing of all…

“Dammit! Curse you data backup!”

He has to redownload that Grimm Wars 2 DLC. That’s the next few minutes out the window. He hits the download button again, waiting for that progress bar to move to the right.

While he is waiting, he thinks about his new weapon. Just what will it be? He hasn’t decided yet. He does have some ideas of what it will be though…

**No gauntlets**. Not after ... **that**. They would be almost impossible to use anyway.

**Nothing without a shield.** He really likes having a shield to wave around as a defensive tool. While he does have armor, a good shield can block almost anything, and it can be used as a sneaky offensive tool when he wants to surprise. 

**It must contain the remnants of Crocea Mors.** Jaune really, really wants to uphold the Arc legacy, and making a weapon from scratch just doesn’t cut it. Even if the sword and sheath are bent beyond usefulness, at least using the metal from them will not only be cheaper, and not only help keep up the legacy, it will also be a nice touch, something unique to him.

And, the most important thing;

**It must use dust.**

No way in hell he is not using Dust. That stuff is just way too powerful. It opens up way too many paths for him. While a straight-up sword is nice, Dust just puts his attack power at an entirely new plane of existence.

But now comes the impossible question; what the hell does he buy?

There’s a near infinite set of possibilities. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

But for now, Grimm Wars 2! With the new DLC finally installed, Jaune does the one thing that almost everyone who is playing this game has done, tame a tiger and ride on it. YEAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

He’s killing it out there riding that tiger. Those Grimm have nothing on this mastermind. I could watch this all day. Wait what are you doing, no don-

\------

**UPLOAD COMPLETE!**

It took several hours to gather all of the data from the offending scroll.

Lots and lots of stuff is in this massive data pile. It’s all easy to sort through though, thanks to the advances of technology and the lack of any encryption on these school-owned devices.

Let’s see, we can ignore the Download folder, ignore most of the apps, what about this pictures folder?

...Oh damn. That sure is a high concentration of abs and muscles. Let’s get out of there…

Well, we do have the messaging app. There is where everything probably is.

The data gets opened and combed through. None of the names stand out... Well damn. The only choice is to go through everything and see what’s u-

_!!!!!_

Is that a Jaune dartboard? What the hell? And a picture of a look-a-like getting tarred and feathered? Just how far does this go?

Luckily there is a convenient message counter:

Yang - 785 messages

Pyrrha - 714 messages

Ruby - 682 messages

Blake - 520 messages

Coco - 491 messages

Weiss - 228 messages

Velvet - 0 messages

And the last two ones, dated last night…

_It’s gonna be so funny seeing the look on his face!  
That was probably the best idea yet!_

What idea? This data heap is closed off for now. Off to the cameras…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m bad at names.


	24. Repainted Pt. 1 - Technicolor

“ **GRAAAAAAH!** ” The tiger roars on Jaune’s scroll as he runs around in the Merlot Island map.

Already having 10 kills under his belt, he skates on the sloped roof, looking for the secret entry pipe. One wrong move sends him in the toxic ooze, which will drain his health quickly and make completion of this mission all the harder.

He sees an oddly placed crate, and guides the tiger onto it. The tiger roars as it breaks the giant crate, revealing a pipe on a nearby wall, but there is one teensy little problem…

He’s in the ooze.

Jaune rushes with the tiger in tow, struggling to crawl out. A health meter appears in the top center, quickly turning green when a piece is removed. The tiger gains enough traction to move forward, but it is slow. The character coughs wildly as the meter dips into the yellow. Finally, with three health pieces left, Jaune escapes into the pipe. A health refill is nearby, but after that is nothing but large, strong Grimm. He jumps into the clearing, ready to fight them all off at once!  
  


. . . This is during the third hour of him playing this game. He’s already beaten the map once, but now it is on hard mode. He’s pressing on despite all the game can throw at him. The thumbs move with perfect accuracy as Jaune’s character clears through the map.

“NOOOOOOOOO! DAMMIT!”

A Grimm hops out from a higher floor and surprises him, leading to his quick death. He was so close!

Jaune’s mind begs him to start another game, but he resists. He has to buy a weapon today.

He grabs the remnants of his old weapon and attaches it to his back. With armor on, money in hand, and a fresh new mind, he sets out on his journey. Which, of course, features one of the few things he will never be able to defeat; motion sickness.

“Jaune? Been a while since you came around. Here’s your bag.”

“Thanks…”

It’s a long way to the weapons shop. Most weapons around here are made by the huntsmen themselves, but Jaune has neither the time nor experience to do that kind of thing. Luckily for him, this shop offers weapon-making services. It’s gonna cost a lot, but that’s what 6000 lien is there for.

But first, the ride there. It is very sparse for this time of day, with very few people on it to speak of. The bag however would disagree with that assumption, as it is chock full of content from all manner of bodily processes. It even has color!

That eye-popping imagery aside, he finally arrives at his stop and gets off the bullhead. The bag quickly gets sealed up and thrown into an endless dark void (otherwise known as a trash can), and off he goes, searching for the weapon store.

It’s the fifth one on the left;

**Cascade AeroDust Inc.!**

It’s got all sorts of neon colors, and the store itself is painted in various colors. There are even weapon displays in the window!

He enters this store and instantly gets hit with a nice air-conditioned gust of wind. They sure do take things seriously around here.

His eyes stare straight ahead, and take it all in.

Numerous pieces of armor, potential weapon parts, Dust ammunition, various hunks of metal, and just about everything else you can think of cover the store wall to wall.

The audial spectrum is filled with various machinery running, like 3-D printers, robotic welding machines, and even some slicers to cut metal down. And, in the far edge, there are three people talking. They offer advice, general weapon knowledge, and also act as salesmen and women to seal the deal for a potential buyer. Jaune takes a mental note of that area. But first, he’s gotta get some inspiration…

Well, time to look through the horde. The first thing that pops out at him immediately is a huntsman demonstrating a shield. He can lift it like it is nothing! His old shield is pretty heavy, but this shield looks even bigger!

He’s gotta ask the salesman about that…

He goes to the left wall and looks at all the weapon designs. Guns everywhere. There’s barely even any swords in the whole display case! It’s just gun after gun after gun. He does see one that shoots projectiles out the sides though… that could be interesting. He continues looking and finds pretty much nothing else of interest.

Next to the guns, of course, is the ammo. They range from tiny little pellets to ones that are as big around as his arm. Obvious that this is their moneymaker… even after the cut the Schnees’ get there’s still almost certainly a healthy profit to be made. At 100 lien for merely a package of 10, this would burn through his money faster than a binge of Pumpkin Pete cereal.

On the other side is all kinds of metal. Magnetic, brittle, even some real expensive diamond is shown off here. How do they keep this from getting robbed?

He hears what sounds like the cocking of a weapon nearby. Looking up, he sees two drones with guns pointed straight at his head. Guess that explains it. But they sure do know their stuff. It’s got ratings, weaknesses, rarity… let’s pull one up right now!

_**Diamond** _

_Rarity - 9 out of 10_

_Price - 8.5 of 10_

_Diamond is a special type of gem that is mined in deep underground areas, below even the Dust mines. This material is very hardened due to this depth, being able to stand even a direct swipe from Boarbatusk claws without losing any strength. However, the high heat and frequent wear of weapon usage cause it to crack somewhat easily, making it a poor choice for anything other than as shielding._

_450 Lien per cubic inch_

This is really useful. He spends about 35 minutes around there looking through all the information cards. In the end, he goes with a steel alloy type, that is almost as good as diamond, but can be used in high-heat situations. And isn’t insanely expensive…

After searching through all of that, he has some ideas, but not enough to get a design yet. Back to the start…

He combs through the weapon designs again. Anything interesting at all? Well there is a flamethrower kind of thing with fire dust.. He also notices a little slot on the top for something. For what, he can’t quite place. But he will ask about it, that’s for sure.

*bump*

“Sorry about that, I didn’t watch wh-”

His eyes process the scene in front of him. Red. Bright, cheery, ketchup red. Only one can don that color.

“J-J-J-J-J-J…”

She stutters like a broken record. Her hands are holding her scythe as if to shoot something, but it is not raised.

Against his better judgment, he taps her on the shoulder.

She rockets off at insane speed, clearly using her semblance, out of the shop, and completely off the street into a nearby bakery.

He and many other onlookers stand in shock at what has just gone on. To take Ruby out of a weapon shop, her biggest sanctuary? It must have been something fierce. No one can believe it.

Eventually everyone returns to their normal routine. Jaune goes back to looking through the multitude of weapons.

After careful observation and scrutiny, he isolates 6 possible weapons to get ideas from, mentally named W1-W6. These weapons span the entirety of the display, and cover the entire range of what he could want in a weapon, without leaving any gaps in between.

With everything set up in his mind, he walks over to the salesman to get his design finalized.

“Finally decided on what you want?”

“M-Mostly there.”

“What were you thinking of?”

“I was thinking of a shield that had something in it that could make it nearly weightless, like that one huntsman I saw earlier lifting his. And I wanted something that could be both a sword and gun essentially, that way I could use dust to do all kinds of attacks.”

“How complicated are you thinking? Do you just want a gun welded to a sword? Cause that is pretty easy to do.”

“Nah, I want to have it be toggle-able between the two whenever I need it. And I don’t want to deal with ammo. Not a fan of all the recoil and waste it has.”

“Understandable. I guess you would use something with powdered Dust I assume?”

“I guess.”

The salesman thinks a while, putting down various drawings and options on his giant scroll. Jaune uses this time to think as well, coming up with more ideas of his own.

“How about a gun that uses some different types of dust, and has an outside shell with all the sword technology? You could switch with the press of a button on the back of the gun.”

He shows the drawing to Jaune. This design has three rings outside the barrel to hold the dust, and a sheath outside of them that can transform into a small sword.

Jaune’s face lights up as he realizes the potential of this prototype design.

“How about a pocket for gravity dust in the barrel? That way my attacks can have range.”

“Can you add a sword attachment to the top of it? Would help me out with rotation and such.”

Two taps on the scroll adds them in. It looks nearly perfect, but he has one more request…

He takes the sword and shield that has been sitting on his back this entire time and sets it in front of the salesman.

“Can you use this stuff to help make it? It was my great-great-grandfather’s weapon.”

A smile cracks onto the salesman’s face. He’s had this request many, many times before. If you get this far, you have the deal sealed.

“Of course we can. Any more customizations you would like?”

“Keep the shield the same. And of course make it extra shiny.”

“Extra shiny huh… alright. 5200 Lien.”

Not all the money used? That’s a surprise. He takes out the lien and sets it on the desk.

“How long?”

“Oh… about 45 minutes.”

“You said.. 45 **minutes**?”

“Yep. These robots work fast. You can even watch it if you like.”

He takes that offer with enthusiasm as he hands his old weapon off. The salesman weighs it in his hands for a moment, trying to figure out how to balance the weight in the new weapon, before throwing them in a microwave.

“This used to take 20 minutes just to heat the metal up, but thanks to Dust, it’s now only-”

*DING!*

“-10 seconds.”

The weapon is left in there as he gets the right metal down for manufacture.

“Your great-great-grandfather sure had a good weapon. Pretty nice steel. How did a nice specimen like this one get bent like that?”

“Don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Grimm Battle, huh? I get you…”

Jaune will just let him believe that…

He puts the old weapon in the metal, and puts the mixture in a shaking machine to stir it up. After about three minutes of that, he turns it off, checks the mix, and then feeds it into a large machine.

The salesman taps the machine as it loads up the molten metal.

“This thing prints it allllll out. It’s pretty calming to watch, I hear.”

After that, it starts running, as multiple tiny jets of molten metal spit out of the machine onto a large, flat surface.

Jaune watches the machine work it’s magic, but quickly gets bored and pulls up some generic scroll game. He’s had enough Grimm Wars 2 for one day.

He can totally see why Ruby would come here… speaking of her…

**Why was she so scared of me?**

Questions  _ he _ will probably never know the answer to. But Jaune wants to stop thinking about them for the time being. So back to the scroll games  he goes…

The machines continue to whir r , as the parts get made,  and some workers put them all together.

“It’s done.” Jaune looks up from his scroll and sees the final finished products. “Try it out on the targets over there.” He walks up to the shooting area and tries to fire some ice dust at it, but nothing comes out.

“Flip the switch down one.”

Another try and an ice Dust pellet flies out of the barrel, straight into the target, blowing clean through. Wanting to test out the sword functionality, Jaune puts the switch back up, then presses a button on the top edge to bring out the three-pronged sword. He runs up and slashes the target, bringing it down with a few quick swipes.

“Very good control. Clearly you had a bit of practice with that old sword.”

“This thing is great. Thanks for the help!”

“You’re welcome. Come back here when you need Dust refills!”

He’s gonna need a lot of those. He buys the first one now, buying one bag each of Fire, Ice, and Earth dust, totaling 450 more Lien.  With the bags attached to his weapon, and the weapon itself strapped on his back, Jaune finally leaves the shop, excited for the future. 

He even stops by the bakery to check on Ruby, who is unsurprisingly still in there, now with cookies and strawberry desserts everywhere around her. She notices him almost immediately, and after stealing a glance at the new weapon he has, quickly turns away, digging her face into an ice cream sundae.

Jaune turns back around and goes toward the bullheads with a happy look on his face. Those droids are gonna get a real smacking tomorrow!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is Part 1. I didn’t want a 4,000 word chapter. I think you can guess who the star of Repainted - Part 2 will be...


	25. Repainted Pt. 2 - “The Cayenne Kick”

\----Ruby POV----

“Why is she always looking at those weapons?”

“She’s always loved them. Remember the thing a week ago where we couldn’t get on the bus?”

“PWAHAHA- I mean of course I do!”

“ **YANG!!!** ”

I slam the 328th issue of Weapons Magazine shut and look at her menacingly.

“Don’t be like that Rubes! We’re laughing with you, not at you!”

She starts laughing now. But I’m not laughing! This is the 5th day in a row she’s done this!

“C’mon Rubes! Don’t look so mad! How about I get you some of that lemon cake?”

“No!” I retreat into my bed with the weapons magazine freshly reopened.

They have a six-speed hookshot?! So cool!

“See? Instant tunnel-vision.”

*Ping!* What’s this?

_The 329 th issue of Weapons Magazine is out! This one features a 16-chamber Gatling gun! It can even shoot all 16 bullets at once!_

The new issue?! YES! I have to get it! I grab Crescent Rose and storm out of the room.

“Let me guess, new issue?”

“Nothing else makes her get that excited. Not even cookies.”

“Are you sure that’s not your fault? You barely let her do anything else fun.”

“Hey! She’s my sis! I have to keep her innocent for at least a little longer.”

“And just how long are you planning to shield her?”

“Oh… until graduation!”

Blake and Weiss look at each other, each with a “This is so not gonna go well” look on their face. But they can’t interfere lest they face the wrath of a pissed-off sun dragon. Like Jaune did.

They go silent and just let Yang do her thing.

That new issue is gonna be so great! I can’t wait to go cover-to-cover with it! It’s gonna be a blast! I can just see it now, Crescent Rose shooting 16 bulle-

“Yeah!!!!! Fuck off Grimm! Get eaten by my gigantic tiger! AHAHA!”

…

…

I run faster and faster away from that. From him. Before I can blink, I’m at the weapons shop, feeling like I am about to collapse into a puddle. I look at the shelf that holds the magazines. Please be there! Please be there!

There it is! The 329th issue! YESYESYESYESYESYES…

I speed off, grab it, and jump up to the register.

“OneissueofWeaponsMagazinePlease!” The girl at the register is smiling. Behind him is the owner of the whole shop, who is also cracking a smile on his face.

“10 Lien Pl-” I slam the 10 Lien of the counter faster than you could say cookie dough and I am **GONE!**

My body rests on its usual spot on the bench. This has happened so many times that they essentially reserve this spot for me now, with red paint and fruit punch and everything. I lift the magazine up and there it is! The 16 chamber gun! This is gonna look so cool stuck in Crescent Rose! I can just see it now! All the Grimm getting absolutely mauled in a hail of bullets! Nothing will get past me! Nothing!

I flip the page and WOW! New 55mm Ammo! I can’t wait to stick that in there! It’s gonna feel so good as it blows out! And those Grimm will be so shocked seeing a hole that big in their face! It’s gonna be just the best! And OOH! A special non-magnetic chain! This will be so good sparring against Pyrrha! And only 25 Lien for 3 feet?! That’s an absolute steal! I can’t wait to hide that in my…”

The Rose is currently in her own universe of delightful weaponry. It’s obvious to anyone who looks over. She’s a bubbly presence around here, bringing smiles to everyone who walks in. Except for a person with blond hair, who doesn’t even spare a glance at her as he walks into the shop. Why is he so _bent_ out of shape?!

But never mind that. She’s still in her nice little world. Let’s go back over there, shall we?

20 minutes later…

Oh my gosh! New polycarbonate metal! I’m gonna make the handle of Crescent Rose with this! Then it’ll be super strong!

Speaking of it-

“ **It’s a she!** ”

*Ahem* Speaking of her, she’s split up into several pieces on the bench, with all kinds of screwdrivers and knives and even safety glasses out. This happens a lot with her. She got lucky last time, with Ruby not having any money to swap stuff in and out, but it’s not looking good for ‘ol Rosie on this go-around...

...A new custom faceplate! I could put a rose petal on it! That’ll go so good with the chain! YEAH! Then I could flaunt that to everyone who sees me kill off a Grimm that it was me! Ruby Rose! Not some other super fancy huntsman from Atlas! Just the unstoppable speed demon that is me!

I start putting Crescent Rose back together for now while I think about just what I can buy. I have over 1000 Lien to spend after all. That chain wasn’t too expensive… How about two packs of ammo! I could always use more of that. At least I hope the price hasn’t changed…

With Crescent Rose in fully functional form, I head back inside and look to buy everything. I look inside and the first thing I see is the ammo. They don’t have the 55mm. Awwwwwwwwww….

I look for the next item, a nice ingot of that polycarbonate steel, and can’t seem to find it. I go closer to the display. One of those huntsman nearby does look familiar… His weapon looks like a disaster though. Especially that shield. Who the hell would use something tha-

**No. He can’t be here.**

Is he… looking into a new weapon? That’s not possible. Why would he do that? Wouldn’t he have given up now?! I would be devastated if my baby was destroyed like that, but he.. he…

\------

_**After a particularly revealing lunch** _ _**...** _

How can he do this! He was so inspiring! I thought he was a hero! But now I learn he cheated?! That the whole thing was a massive lie? But why? Why would someone do that? Is he really that cold?

Yang walks in the dorm. Her face did have a small grin on it, but it quickly fades into concern after seeing me.

“Rubes…”

“ **He can’t do this!!!** ”

“I know… Pyrrha is getting that taken care of. I know it hurts. But trust me, this will all blow over before you know it.”

Yang brings me into her arms as I continue to sniffle.

“Think about it this way. When he goes out there to battle, if he loses his weapon, he’s done. He’ll be absolutely screwed. He won’t die a hero. He’ll die as a scared little boy, curled up in a ball, overwhelmed by everything.”

Yang then grabs a pack of cookies from a nearby drawer.

“Here, have a cookie.” She almost jams it into my mouth. I chomp on it and let the flavor take me.

“T-thanks sis…”

I’m already beginning to feel a little better. And she’s right, isn’t she? He’s not a hero. Heroes don’t cheat. Heroes fight until they can’t fight anymore.

All he has done is stolen another hero’s place. A new person, a **real** hero, not a fake one, will replace him. And he’ll probably have a cooler weapon too.

\------

That cookie was so good..- **FOCUS!**

I can’t believe that an impostor like him is here. Was it not enough for him to steal a spot at Beacon? He has to steal a weapon too?!

And that’s exactly what he’s doing. I saw him looking through those info cards. I did that last week when they debuted the new crystallized ferrofluid! He’s got all the ideas flying through his head!

I can’t let this happen. I have to end this right now.

But I can’t kill him… a hero wouldn’t do that, right? A hero would help out people in need! People who are stuck in a sticky situation!

But he cheated. Maybe he deserves what has come to him so far. And what will come to him now.

These two thoughts wrestle in my mind as I lay my hands on Crescent Rose, gearing her up for a quick shot. I try to lift it u-

**Why is she so heavy?!**

Ugggh, please Ruby! This is like taking a cookie from a baby! Just lift her up and-

*bump*

Uh oh...

“Sorry about that, I didn’t watch wh-”

I see his eyes flip from something generic to a look of… concern? Why does he look like that? He’s an impostor! There’s no way he is here to help us heroes out!

“J-J-J-J-J-J…”

Curse my awkwardness! That concerned look is growing bigger and bigger now. Why can’t I stop stuttering?! Why is he reaching out for-

*tap*

**ROSEPETAL.EXE HAS CRASHED. LOOKING FOR NEAREST CHECKPOINT…**

**CHECKPOINT FOUND! TELEPORTING…**

…

...Where am I? I look around and see myself in a bakery. Wasn’t I in the weapon shop earlier? And there I ran into-

It was him, wasn’t it… My hands ball into fists at the thought of what happened earlier. He hurt me again! I need something to take my mind off…

I walk up to the counter and order an amount of sweets large enough to drown me…

“Give me three dozen cookies, and a sundae with extra extra extra strawberries. Oh also gimme some vanilla ice cream, and some cherries on top, and also some cherry popsicles, and…”

The man at the register can only watch as the red huntress continues to name pretty much every possible dessert that is red. After she finally finishes, he can only say three words.

“Coming right up!”

I sit at one of the tables, completely alone. After a long time of waiting and thinking, my nose catches something that smells really, really good...

“Here you are!”

A massive plate of sweets almost as big as the table I’m sitting at is set down in front of me. He takes the plate out from under them all, and I am left staring at the mass of sugary paradise.

I begin to eat. And eat. And eat. A sundae is gone in a flash. Three strawberries are swallowed whole. A cherry is completely lost in an avalanche of ice cream. Before I know it, the spoon turns bright pink from all the ice cream, cookies, and red fruit that it has picked up.

I look up at the clock. 8:30 already? Just how long have I been here? I take a peek outside, and the sun is setting. But that is not all I see.

**Jaune. Again.**

And this time, he has his weapon. A gun, huh? It’s pretty cool-looking. Wait, did I - **did I just call HIS weapon cool?!**

…

I don’t want to think about that faker again. He can keep his stupid weapon! It still won’t save him!

I lower my head back into the dessert pile. Oum, this tastes so, so good… I don’t ever want to leave…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally much, much different in my head. But I reeled it back. Yes, Jaune’s weapon has a name, it will be revealed very soon. Don’t get your hopes up too much though.


	26. Risorgimento

Heavy, Light, Rickety, or Quiet, the type of Bullhead to ride on is a matter of personal preference. The bullhead can be stuffed with weapon-clad huntsmen, regular people going about their day, or even empty, like a hollowed-out egg.

This particular one is filled with mostly regular people retiring for the night, and is oddly quiet. There is one out of place figure in this crowd. And he’s got a new weapon. And a cool one at that.

The bag is in his hand, ready for it’s regular filling, but it doesn’t come. His exuberance paints the bullhead in a cheery yellow. Too bad no one else cares to see it. The ride ends, and the bag is given back to the driver.

“Nothin today? You remembered ya motion pills?”

He didn’t.

“Oh shit! I almost forgot them! Thanks for reminding me!”

He gets back on the bullhead and goes back for motion sickness pills. The brightness continues on. The trip there is completely uneventful. Jaune even goes back to playing scroll games on the way.

He gets off and runs in the grocery store. Where are the pills? It’s already 9:30. He goes to their usual spot and, on the top shelf, there are two packs left. YES!

Jaune grabs one and puts it in his cart. While he’s here, he might as well get some cooking ingredients… He’s still gotta cook that food for Yatsuhashi after all…

But what to buy? There’s too many choices. Does he cook a pasta dish? What about a chicken thing? Hell, even homemade pizza sounds good right about now…

There’s just too much. How about something that he hasn’t done before?

“I’ve never tried to fix any stuffed turkey before…”

He’s done all kinds of food; lasagna, chili, even some frozen yogurt. But never something stuffed like this…

But of course, he has to get the most important ingredient, the turkey. He has to search all throughout the freezer section for this one, but eventually finds a plump 15 pounder that looks perfect for filling. Gotta get the stuffing now!

No way in hell is Jaune gonna go for a boxed version. It’s homemade or nothing. Luckily, bread is easy to find. 5 loaves later, the top of his cart is full of carbs. He’s already got some eggs and butter, so now it’s just a long march for the many, many spices.

The smells of the spices beckon for him as he approaches the rack. Containers are swapped in and out as his mind scrolls thorough a recipe book. The cart begins to get filled with various bags and tubes of spice.

Other shoppers are a little curious at what is going on, so they stick around a bit to watch him go.

And boy is Jaune going. His hands are moving a mile a minute, putting down spices, picking them up, and eventually building his collection up inside the walls of the cart. As the last container falls in, a small tube of cloves to be precise, his face morphs into a satisfied expression.

All done!

The onlookers quickly scurry away before they can be noticed. But Jaune is in his own little world now, thinking about all of the culinary possibilities. He sails down the main aisle toward the registers, but a small disturbance pulls him out of the daydream.

“Ren! Lemme guess, cooking for Nora again?”

He merely nods, but the multiple pounds of flour, eggs, and butter sitting inside his cart do all the talking that could ever be needed.

“I notice that you got a new weapon.”

“Yep. Just got it from the weapons shop on the other side of Vale.”

“Interesting. Have you given it a name?”

“Not yet.”

Silence takes over.

“……...Well, I hope I get to see it in action during sparring class.”

“I’m sure you’ll see it.”

The conversation ends right there. Very odd. But whatever. No time to think, the turkey is warming up as we speak!

Jaune quickly checks out all of the goods and gets back on the bullhead. He is still exuding that trademark brightness, but it is covered up more by all of the bags he has to carry. Bag handles line his arms, hands, and even a few were delicately placed on his weapon for safe keeping.

It’s a bit of a balancing act, but he gets through it with ease. He’s **very** lucky the motion sickness didn’t rear its head back around on this ride, as all those spices would have been completely ruined.

He gets back to Beaconpast 10, and finally makes it back to his dorm, concluding this long, yet fruitful journey.

_Wait a minute, he didn’t get any-_

Jaune is back on Grimm Wars 2, but this time, instead of riding a tiger around and shredding Grimm, he just hops on and explores the world. They sure put a lot of effort into this one small island. The extra pipes, the secret room that houses some gold, the island itself is 100% fully textured…

His weapon sits on the bed next to him while he plays. The question that Ren asked earlier comes back to his head; he doesn’t have a name yet for this weapon, does he…

Where did the name Crocea Mors even come from anyway? All Jaune know is that it’s what the name was when he first got a look at the thing… And he never really saw fit to change it. But he has no one to gift a name to him now, so what next?

The open area of the factory roof is a great view. Looking out, one can see the whole of Merlot Island from up here. One can see the few Grimm that continue on despite Jaune’s best extermination efforts, and the ominous atmosphere of the whole map acting like a blanket, covering it all.

Suddenly, a lightbulb flickers. That’s it! Such a good name.

_Arcus Rinato._

*insert audience clapping and cheering here*

With that all sorted out, and with classes coming tomorrow, he turns the game off, sets his weapon up on the side of his bed, puts on his Pumpkin Pete pajamas, and crawls into bed, with his eyes slowly fluttering shut. Sleep comes almost instantly.

...

Oh boy 3 AM!

But no sneaking or nefarious shenanigans this time around. Tonight is a night of quiet. Lay back down and go to sleep.

_Awwwwwww… :(_

\------

As the sun begins to rise on another glorious day, birds line the trees surrounding the academy. One of these birds is the large, bold, silhouette of a bird, the lovely crow. This crow in particular has a special glint in his eye…

He stands proud, keeping a watchful look over the inhabitants. But he seems to be.. Frowen-ing. What’s wrong, crow?

“ **CAW!** ”

And it flies away. I wish I knew where he was going…

\------ (A/N: I know, I know. I’ve already cut my hands off and put duct tape over my mouth. I won’t make a pun like that again.)

“MMMMMMPH!” Jaune stretches out his arms as the alarm blares. signifying the start of the day. He gently taps his scroll to turn off the alarm, and slowly rises to his feet.

What to have for breakfast? Oum knows he’s got enough in the fridge now to make just about anything he could want… but today is a lazy day. He’ll leave the cooking for later…

What are they having for breakfast today? Jaune checks his scroll and- Pancakes! This is gonna be good.

He straps the gun on his belt and takes off for the cafeteria. But it’s still 6:30, and it isn’t open yet. Fuck.

But that’s nothing on him right now. He turns around and walks outside to enjoy the cool sunrise for a while and play some scroll games.

And that he does. The chilly breeze stands in perfect contrast to the otherwise sunny sky. Other than the occasional student walking around, there is only one interruption of this nice break…

An inflamed Yang marches into view, holding a vibrantly red huntress in her arms. Even though she is still gauntletless, Jaune does not dare enter her line of sight, staying still in a corner, as if she was a T-Rex. She passes by harmlessly, storming into the academy without deviating from her straight-line path.

But why was Ruby down for the count like that? He can only think of one reasonable explanation…

**Sugar Coma.**

Well, at least  pancakes don’t have any danger of that. Speaking of which, it’s time to get some!  


Jaune rushes  over and gets there early enough  to where there isn’t even a line. He goes to sit down in his usual spot, but a familiar object is in that place. Or, more specifically, a familiar stack. 

This one is higher than ever, reaching 8 feet high, far, far outside of Nora’s reach.  How does she even eat this?  He sits down and watches, noticing Yatsu on the left, who seems to be doing the same thing.

“Do you think Ren would know how she eats all of this?”

“Doubt it.”

They each have one normal-sized stack, and come to a quick unspoken agreement to eat them while watching Nora go. But both of them forgot that this was Nora they were dealing with. Her 8-foot stack gets vacuumed up before either of them finish their own.

They both sit in shock.

“Jaune-Jaune! I see you have a new weapon!”

B oth Nora and Yatsu stare at him. 

“Oh! Uh yeah! I got it made yesterday, Arcus Rinato.” He takes the weapon out and demonstrates its sword functionality.

“That is very interesting.” Nora shows her agreement with a beaming face, staring at it like a child stares at someone juggling chainsaws.

“I think she wants to see more demonstrations. Let us finish eating.”

Jaune and Yatsu quickly finish their respective plates and  prepare to head out. 

“Well, where are we going, Jaune?”

He’s got just the place to go to demonstrate his new weaponry.

“The arenas. I’m fighting some droids!”

Jaune runs down there, with Nora and Yatsu rushing behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you not to get your hopes up too much. The next chapter will not have any RWBYPC or Ren or anyone else at all. We all deserve a break from time to time.


	27. Jaune's Reverie

He hasn't even seen the coin off the ledge yet...

\--------

Quite possibly the oddest trio of colors blow through the hallways at very, very high speed. They begin to separate at the training arenas, and the yellow one goes inside, ready to do battle with the finest specimens of virtual fighters money can buy.

He begins at Level 1. The single fighter that kicks everything off is no match for Jaune. It gets absolutely demolished with an easy “sword” slash. The two bots that follow meet a similar fate, unable to even fire a shot. The three afterward really should have just given up and killed themselves, but luckily Jaune is there to do the job for them, taking them down with two quick slashes. Although one of them got a shot off this time. Rude!

If that one shot affected him, he doesn’t show it. As the level counter ticks up, He remains as watchful as ever. The robots come out again and keep meeting their fate as mere metal fragments on the ground, before being zapped out of existence. Level 3, which was a crowning achievement for the Jaune of before, is now stormed through with very little exertion on his part.

_**10 minutes later...** _

The designers of this simulation put a cruel, cruel wall in to slow progress down. It is meant to give them a decent challenge, but any untrained foe would be almost certain to meet their end right here. The trio of bots that cap off Level 9 are buffed to hell. For a proper huntsman, this is nothing, as most clear it on their second try. Some even get it on Try 1, like many of the first-years in this class.

Now it is Jaune’s turn to try this gauntlet. The attack begins strong, with all three bots firing at the same time. His shield is big enough to block them all, but it’s still an annoying start. He goes to attack one with his sword…

But misses.

They are also fast as all hell. He can get several nicks in, but their reaction time is just too quick, as they duck just outside the reach of the sharpened blades. This sure is an Atlas product. The Dust will have to come out for this one.

Even mere milliseconds feel like an eternity as the bots begin doing some damage. Ice dust gets selected this time, and out pops pellets of ice, that, despite their small size, cause significant damage to those bots. But it’s still a tough fight. The shield works wonders to stop any bumps from the bots, but three at once is just hard to deal with. One goes down with a shot between the eyes.

He switches it over to Fire Dust, and suddenly things seem to get a little easier… The fire spreads out like a phoenix and completely covers one of the bots, neutering it to the point where a simple kick knocks it out of commission. This truly is an Atlas product. The final bot sees what happened to its buddy and tries to run away from the fiery stick, but Jaune is on a warpath.

The shield blocks almost all attacks, and even the ones that get through do nothing. The bot zigs and zags around, trying to find an opening, but nothing appears. He traps it in a corner and slashes the ever-loving fuck out of the bot, giving it hit after hit after hit. It’s almost an unrecognizable pile of scrap by the time he is done with it.

“Uff... Uff… Wow……”

But one feeling overcomes them all; happiness. He actually did it.

“ _Level 9 complete! Continue to-_ ”

The area of the screen that once held the continue button shatters. His weapon comes back out, and the fight continues on. Jaune continues in peak form, but more and more hits begin to seep through as the levels climb. The arena cycles through a multitude of colors thanks to all of the dust being used. He makes it to Level 20, a relatively high level that few get to without overusing their semblance to hell and back. But he is clearly close to collapse. The fighting has taken its toll, and he must quit.

He struggles to make it over to the pad, and lightly touches the “End Simulation” button with one begrudging, reddened finger.

It shows many statistics upon ending the simulation.

_Hits Taken: 27_

_Bots Killed: 132_

_Level Reached: 20_

_Final Grade: 39/50 C+_

**Wait, C+? Fuck you Atlas, there isn’t a better 50/50 on the planet and you know it. Not even the slam dunk contest can compare.**

_See high scores?_

Curious, he taps the corner of the button, barely able to do so because of the incident earlier.

_Highest Level_

_1\. GG - Level 0***_

_2\. Pyrrha - Level 255_

_3\. Coco - Level 96_

_4\. Raven - Level 77_

_5\. Qrow - Level 69_

_*One star equals one full loop of 256 levels._

Who’s “GG”? And how did she get through 700+ levels of this?

And of course Pyrrha is number 2. Definitely not the magnetism. Jaune can not think of a single way that magnetism could be useful in this simulation. It’s not like you could use it to throw the robots around like a pinball and make them go-

*bonk bonk bonk bonk*

Yeah! Like that! She totally didn’t u-

*bonk bonk bonk BOOM!*

Jaune looks outside the arena. Yatsu is there, also looking forward. He follows his gaze…

The faint buzz of what sounds like a tornado is the first thing he notices. The second thing he notices is a Level 6 droid flying into the walls of the arena, instantly crushed. Of course there is only one person who can cause that kind of damage.

He doesn’t even need to look over, as she spins into view. Two bots follow her. He watches one get too close, and it slingshots into the wall, instantly exploding.

She stops spinning and casually walks out of the arena.

“Nora? What the hell was that?!”

“You don’t like it, Fearless Leader?”

“No! It’s awesome! I just hope you aren’t too dizzy from all that spinning.”

“Oh I don’t get dizzy!”

“Really? How?”

“Not telling!”

“I suspect it is because she has gone through so many sugar highs she can never get dizzy again.”

“Uh….. What time is it?”

“9:00 AM.”

Only 9 AM? There’s still over half the day left!

Too bad there are classes today… *sigh*

He’s already missed the history class… but is that really a bad thing? It is Dr. Oobleck, after all…

Jaune quickly decides to stop caring about that class. Because it is just that. History. The past, not the now. Imagine going out to fight Grimm. What is he gonna do, pose as a psychic and tell about their past so accurately that they back away in horror and quit the fight? Yeah right.

The next class is the all-important Dust class. It’s been fun the past few times, so there’s no reason it can’t be again, right? And now he can actually try some of the tricks that the teacher does! It’s only 30 minutes away too.

Jaune, Nora, and Yatsu split up and do their own things for a while, with Jaune “deciding” to recuperate from the earlier training session for the time being. By the time he is fully rested up, it’s already almost time for the class, so he has no choice but to walk down to the class and continue the day.

He sits down in his seat and looks up at the board, waiting for the teacher to start on her usual spiel about Dust. But she does not. She’s staring at him.

“Jaune Arc! I heard through the grapevine that you have a new weapon. Would you like to show it off to the class?”

Not really, but he doesn’t have a choice, so he walks up to the front, weapon in hand. It still has marks from earlier.

“Alright. Now I will come up with something for you to do to test your skill. Hand me your weapon.” He does so.

She seems to X-Ray through it with her mind, trying to find out as much as possible about this new mechanical device. After many turns through her hands, she hands it back to him. She then gets a special bowl, some rocks, and a bag of fire dust. He and many other students watch as she throws the rocks in the container, and uses the fire dust to set it ablaze.

None of them get the time to watch the fire burn before the teacher delegates her task.

“Cover the lava up with rocks. I know you have Earth dust in that weapon.”

A bit on the spot, but nothing Jaune can’t do, right?

He sets the switch, aims it over the lava, and begins to fire. The lava gradually gets covered up with the fresh earth. It’s a small container, so it doesn’t take too much to cover it all up.

“Forgetting something?”

It takes him a second to realize that, thanks to the fire dust, that lava is still hot, and that new earth will just join its brothers and sisters in temperature in just a few minutes. Unless he does something quick!

He shoots some ice dust out to cover the earth up. A mere dusting is all it takes to stop the reaction, and keep the lava covered.

“See? You must always consider the environment around you before shooting dust patterns willy nilly. Great work Jaune! You may return to your seat now. I won’t even throw the book down on your desk this time.”

In the teacher’s hand is said book, which looks twice as thick as the last one. The sound that would have made if it slammed on a desk…

Jaune gracefully takes the book and sits back down. The rest of the class goes by as it usually does, with multiple pages of notes once again written on the paper. The bell rings, and Jaune is back on break. But what to do?

Why not try ‘ol reliable, Grimm Wars 2? That’s the most surefire way to pass the time on all of Remnant. And Jaune takes advantage. This time choosing a more Dust-capable weapon, he runs around killing off Grimm in the deserts of Vacuo. The Dust even enhances his trick shot capabilities too.

He throws a bag of highly-concentrated fire dust straight into a field of Grimm. They don’t see him throw it, so they stay in the area. A nearby tree has a rock placed on top. What does he do with this rock? Well, he just pushes it off, then quickly sprays a line of ice dust straight toward the bag. Those Grimm can’t run away in time, and a massive explosion vaporizes them all. Over-complicated and wasteful? Yes. But also extremely cool as well? You bet.

Before Jaune knows it, the clock strikes 12:30, and it is time to get lunch. Today is steak day, and there is no way he is going to miss out on that. Since there is nothing that needs any weaponry until the sparring classes, he leaves it in the dorm.

Despite getting there early, the lunch line is still pretty long. But the steak is worth it. It has exquisite flavor and texture, combined with the perfect level of color, and the sizzling of the grill it is made on all meshes together and gets everyone’s mouth watering, including Jaune’s.

At the end of this long wait, the steak is placed on the tray, along with some corn and mashed potatoes on the side. But those two are just secondary to the main event. Jaune sits down and digs right in.

Holy shit that steak is good. It doesn’t even need steak sauce. He looks around to the usual suspects nearby to see what they are eating. Nora is eating… nothing? Not even any pancakes? Hmmm…

But his eyes magnetize to what Yatsu is eating. A brown patty sits on top of one of the brightest circles that he has ever seen. This circle is made up of several foods, dominated by the white strings of what looks like cheese, and the occasional area of red, made up of salsa and some mysterious slices of something that Jaune can’t even begin to figure out. One thing’s for sure, though, it really does stand out.

He tries to focus his gaze on the succulent steak in front of him for the rest of this lunch, but now his mind is thinking about just what that was on Yatsu’s plate. It was possibly the oddest thing he’s ever seen…

*bump*

Jaune looks up and sees Yatsu’s plate bumped next to his, with 1/8 of the dish remaining. He takes his spoon and tries some. What a surprise! This food isn’t really that bad…

“It tastes good, does it not?”

“Actually… yeah it does!”

“Good. Now you are going to cook for me today after class.”

“Wh- Hey! I don-”

“You’re cooking something? Is it pancakes?!”

“...*sigh* No, I’m not cooking pancakes.”

Nora deflates, but only slightly.

“So you will be cooking something for me then?”

Yatsuhashi, you clever little son of a-

“…...Fine.”

“See how easy it is when you just let it happen?”

Jaune forces himself to focus on the bits of steak that are left. Besides, he’s got the turkey to do! Now’s a good a time as any to try, right? Especially with another expert around…

The lunch rolls along to a close, and the trays are sent up to the mysterious dish-washing crew.

And now the rest of the day begins. The few classes he has left are completely uneventful. They don’t have the cool factor of the Dust classes, the always fun to watch fighting of sparring class, or even the sleep-inducing effects of Dr. Oobleck. The hours pass, and Jaune merely floats throughout the school.

Sparring class is now up, and Jaune sits in his usual spot. Everyone filters in, and Glynda calls attention to the class the instant the bell finishes ringing. She wastes no time in calling out the first two names, seemingly already having them decided.

“Fox Alistair and Sky Lark”

Those two choices sure are not flashy. But could it be a good fight regardless?

No. It’s an absolute snoozefest. So boring I couldn’t even watch it to summarize for you. Clearly the other students are thinking the same, as they whisper amongst themselves for a while. What are they whispering about? No one can tell, but it sure is a big topic of discussion, as this goes on throughout the entire 30 minute long affair.

The fight finally ends when Sky’s aura goes into the red, giving Fox the victory. Trench warfare was more entertaining. Glynda seems to disagree however, as she remains as stoic as ever, with not a single whisper of boredom showing on her face. Who’s gonna be in the next fight?

“Blake Belladonna and Cardin Winchester.”

Joy……… ugggggggggggggggggggg-

_**One timeskip later…** _

The bell rings, and everyone rushes out of the sparring class. It was one of the least fun classes that anyone has ever seen. Jaune is no exception, walking away at a very brisk pace, on his way back to the communal kitchen. As he approaches he hears what sounds like bags being shuffled around. Who could be in there already? He has an idea...

He gently opens the door.

“Yats-”

Jaune’s eyes go wide as he sees the turkey, breading, and every single spice laid out on a large counter.

“Well? It is your turn now, chef.”

“H-h-how did you-”

“Oh… I have my ways…”

Jaune knows he’s not getting anything more, so he just walks up to the counter and begins preparing.

His mind begins to get tunnel-vision again as he goes through all the spices, deciding which ones to use and which ones not. Definitely not the cloves, yes to the parsley, hell yes to some poultry seasoning…

The counter is a mess of containers, but it all eventually peters out, leaving Jaune with a nice stuffing, ready to be shoved in some turkey.

Yatsu takes one singular bite, and immediately his face lights up.

“Very good. You sure know how to spice things up.”

“Glad the years of having to cook is paying off…”

He opens up the turkey and begins preparing it for its filling. Yatsu decides to weigh in with a story.

“You know, I once heard of a guy who took a turkey to the beach with him on a vacation.”

“What?! No.”

“It is true. He even lathered it in sunscreen.”

“I refuse to believe that.”

“The person I talked to said he saw it happen. He also apparently always buys it as the first item during a grocery trip.”

“How do you even know that?”

Jaune’s focus is moving away from the stuffing at these insane propositions.

“I suppose the guy was a friend of his? I don’t really know for sure.”

“...I don’t understand.”

“Some people are just like that. He had one thing right, which was that turkey **is** a food that is often stuffed.”

“...I guess the turkey addict was right on that one.”

Jaune focuses back on the finishing up the stuffing after that interesting conversation. After a while of messing around, some butter is put on top of the turkey, and it goes in the oven for many, many hours of being blasted with heat.

Now with many hours to kill, Jaune and Yatsu talk about all things cooking.

Recipes are exchanged, and pictures of some of the most mouth-watering food on Remnant are cycled through, but the talk eventually ends. There’s still two hours left on the oven.

“That was really fun. I am going to go to the gardens for a while. Keep watch over the food.”

“I will.”

Yatsu walks out. Jaune takes a look at the turkey, and yep, it is a turkey. And it sure does look enticing. But even he can not spend the next two hours just watching a turkey.

His mind goes to work finding something good to cook with the stuffed turkey. Cabinets get rummaged through, refrigerators are opened, cold food gets thrown out of chest freezers, and bags of yeast are forcibly separated from their families. After almost an hour of desperate searching through every single corner of the kitchen, he finally settles on just one extra dish:

Bread rolls.

He quickly gets the dough mixture in a bowl, and with the help of just a pinch of Dust, gets it to raise several inches, filling the entire bowl up to the rim. One display of expert knifework later, it’s all cut up into perfect circles.

It gets thrown in the oven right next to the turkey. By now, said turkey is beginning to emit a very powerful aroma. And damn, is that aroma pleasing…

After a few minutes a familiar huntress bursts into the kitchen.

“It’s not done yet!”

“It isn’t? It sure smelled done!”

“How could you smell it from all the way over at the dorm?”

“My nose is like a bloodhound! How else do you think I know wherever there are pancakes afoot!”

Well when she puts it like that…

“You got me there. But it’s still not done.”

Nora leaves, clearly disappointed. But there’s nothing that can be done. And besides, she’ll be back.

The turkey is getting browner and browner, and is taken out a couple of minutes early. He gets out a meat thermometer and sticks it deep inside the turkey, making sure it is a perfect 165(degree symbol) inside.

The thermometer says…

_165.0 F_

“Yes!” Jaune shuts the oven off, satisfied with his culinary creation.

But now, the million dollar question. Does it taste good?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is where I just couldn’t do it anymore. Of course the turkey tasted good. Jaune would never screw that up.


	28. Coulda Shoulda Woulda

At least I "ended" it on a happy part, right?

But remember in that deleted update, I said that I had a plan. Now it's time to show it.

After the turkey was taken out, Jaune, Nora, and Yatsu would all have eaten it. Since the turkey is big, there would be some leftovers. Jaune would ask what to do with the rest, but Nora would not give him a choice, going out and sending little leftovers to everyone! She is so thoughtful. This would have ended the long-as-hell Chapter 27.

After that, Jaune would prepare for the dance, wanting himself to go because it would beat sitting around again, and because he wants to show off his good dancing. He would go to a clothes shop to buy a dress. I know what's you're thinking, here is where Coco comes in right? Nope. She does not get a swipe at him. Why? I wanted to focus on a final gambit for the betrayal group. And he's been beaten around enough, hasn't he? He would get a nice suit and come back.

Shortly afterward, I would send Jaune off on a mission to kill Grimm around some area, because I want to have something for him to do, and he can be a badass.

While that is happening, I would cut to Weiss, who would be having second thoughts about everything. I have made several hints toward this, and it would have been realized: Weiss is joining Team Jaune. I would have connected it, with the idea of this starting from Pyrrha's response to the "No." from Chapter 17. It would be added on by her faking that "pet" idea in that meeting because she panicked and had to think something up on the spot, and being a bit impressed with Jaune's new weapon, and general being better. But the main reason would have been the loss of team cohesion, as they would all be fighting and talking about Jaune and such, not really being a true quartet of friends. Of course, Jaune's "Team" is obviously very cohesive, pretty much the exact opposite of RWBY.

This would have been the real lesson in this whole fic (if you could call it that): Don't lose yourself in the pursuit of one idea. Kinda like the people who subscribe to QAnon and all that jazz.

RWBY does notice this however, and they essentially peer pressure her to the point that she caves and is the main leader in the final gambit: The drink-spiking.

During the dance, Jaune would get his drink spiked by Weiss, and he would collapse. I would deliberately cut off that scene right there making you all think he is dead, just for shits and giggles. The 'ol Cyberchase trick.

Right after that chapter ended, the very next one would have been, **finally,** the story of Nora's pancake adventure. Would've been really fun to write, let me tell you. It would be one long chapter of fun. then we would jump back to Jaune and his whole "being dead" thing.

Jaune wouldn't die. He would get revived thanks to some dream sequence probably involving his family. It would be all cliche too, something like:

"You aren't done yet Jaune! You have to prove yourself!"

And Jaune would "walk back through the light" so to speak and be revived.

Seeing this, and the reactions of Nora and Yatsu, who would also be there, Weiss would finally shrug off the peer pressure. She would initiate the official process of taking herself off RWBY. The other three would be right behind her, wanting the same thing.

Ozpin would reshuffle the teams. Pyrrha joins team RBY, and it becomes RYBN.

Ren would join team CVF, and it would become.. well I didn't decide the name for that one. But Fox would have been the leader, just as a silly twist, and because Fox is never mentioned ever in any RWBY fic.

And the new team, JNWY, would be officially formed.

After this, we would approach the Vytal Festival. RYBN would be openly bickering about Jaune and their own failures. And of course Weiss would be integrating into JNWY and becoming really good friends.

Vytal time! JNWY easily wins their first round match against one of the other teams. RYBN, however, does not, because of all the bickering and lack of cohesion. They're trash anyway.

I would have made a change to the festival, instead of the team-doubles-singles thing or whatever canon does I would have kept it at the team stage all the way up.

Second round match would begin, maybe against SSSN. JNWY would win of course.

And then the final matchup against... Fox's team! They wouldn't have much of the cohesion problems that screwed over RYBN, so they would be actually good.

It would be an extremely long and tough fight. JNWY would win, but only Jaune remains, as the other seven students in the arena are taken out. Ozpin would then congratulate him and he is on top of the world!

(basically the Chapter 10 dream except in reality)

And that would be the end! Probably around 50 chapters or so total for the whole thing. If I wanted to be cute I could have gotten RYBN expelled for their... well.. everything, just as a nice middle finger to them.

I even thought of a sequel, this time taking place post-fall of Beacon with the Ace-Ops and Salem and such, and a person (probably Yang because fuck Yang, all my homies hate Yang) would try to destroy the "good team" from the inside out. But that's all I got on that.

Is this a good story? I dunno. But that's what my mind was wanting.

There were three goals with this:

1\. Have fun writing it (obviously that worked until it didn't)

2\. Have Jaune be really good eventually, but not overpowered to the point that he just destroys everyone

3\. Have the people against Jaune get fucked over, mostly due to their own incompetence

As you can see, in a perfect world all three would have been executed to perfection. But alas....

Before I send you to the epilogue, I want to say, a massive, massive thank you to everyone who looked, commented, and left kudos at this fic, even the ones who didn't finish Chapter 1. You guys and gals made doing this more fun than it had any right to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now go to the epilogue!


	29. The Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now you get to see everything.

**WARNING: THIS SPOILS THE ENTIRE THING, FROM BOTTOM TO TOP, AND MUCH, MUCH MORE. IF YOU DON’T WANT THAT, READ THE FIC FIRST. 5 OUT OF 5 herbiecides AGREE THAT IT IS WORTH IT. IT’S NOT COMPLICATED. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SOME DRUGS ON YOU.**

**\----------**

JAUNE’S WEAPON

Jaune’s Weapon - “Arcus Rinato”

* Has a shield

* Made of metal

* Uses dust, similar to Weiss, but not a revolving chamber weapon specifically like Myrtenaster

Ideas: Put Gravity Dust in the shield to allow for self-controlled weightlessness, ~~maybe even enough to stand on~~ Can propel himself in a limited capacity, maybe like 6 inches of movement max, by maybe holding it in a certain way? Like maybe if he puts some pressure on a certain area, the dust will become react-able and give him those abilities.

The weapon will be a gun-like thing. It needs to have ranged attack, but It can’t JUST be a ranged weapon. ~~Maybe like a tri-dust weapon, a sword with three linings of dust in it? Maybe a 4 chambered thing, one with nothing, 3 with three different types of dust. Instead of using dust chambers, use a sort of dust lining system. By rotating something on the hilt of the sword, the weapon can be changed into a different dust mode, allowing for quick switching~~ ~~of attacks and large variance~~ ~~. And it’s still a sword. But is that too similar to Myrtenaster…?~~

*wiki check*

fuck it’s literally a sword version of Myrtenaster. DAMMIT!

Maybe a gun that has foldable prongs that extend out to be like a sword, but has ranged capabilities He would activate the sword by pressing a button on the top near his hand, around where the cocking thing is on a real gun. Not using ammo, it instead incorporates the dust in a ring pattern. Three concentric rings filled with dust line the inside of the barrel, and can be controlled which one by a switch on the side of the gun, which allows the selected dust type to leech out. The ranged abilities would be slightly less than Myrtenaster, accomplished by another gravity dust thing near the top of the barrel, which can do things like

*Make a flame shot very expansive

*speed up ice chunks to be used as projectiles

*Sloped Ground walls

It’s very powerful, when used to it’s fullest potential. It relies on dust for anything truly magnificent, which is good.

\---------------

Final weapon:

Shield: Basically the same as Crocea Mors original shield, but with the added gravity dust feature.

“Sword”: Gun-sword combo, that, with the right dust applications, can be almost as powerful as Myrtenaster.

There is no “sheathing” functionality needed, so it’s not there.

You take it apart as follows:

1: The outside barrel, containing the sword functionality, is attached by inside clips. They become detached by hitting a button on the underside of the gun, right after the barrel. This is in the area of the gun between the trigger finger and the rest of the hand, in a little triangle kinda area, so no danger of it coming off while shooting. You would just slide it off and open it up after that.

2\. The inside barrel is just cleaned like a normal gun.

3\. The concentric rings would essentially be the reverse of the barrel, cleaned in a similar way.

4\. The gravity attachment at the end would be a magazine kinda thing In the very top edge of the barrel, taken off by a button at the top, which would eject it with force, so the hand would need to be ready to catch it. It would be simple to open, like a battery cover the sword attachment would be slightly more hollowed out there to avoid pressing that button on accident.

5\. The trigger area, containing the dust-switching switch and aforementioned detachment button, would be the hardest part to clean. The barrel would be attached by two small screws on top and bottom, which would have to be removed, from there the whole barrel unscrews and the trigger area would be separate, then more screws would be needed to break that open.

I am not about to try drawing this. I wish I could, I really really do, but my skills just aren’t there.

There’s a lot of “three” in this design. It does kinda work in this fic, as you could think of this as the beginning of a “Jaune 3.0” of sorts.

1.0: Before Beacon

2.0: Initiation, and afterwards until all the shit happens, gradually killing this version off

3.0: New Jaune with the team and stuff

The name, Arcus Rinato, is a mashup of the Latin for Arc, and Italian for “Reborn”. I know, super thought out. But it’s good enough for me. The original plan was to be named various translations of the words “Scarlet Letter” (of course alluding to Pyrrha), but those words didn’t really work too well in Google Translate.

**\----------**

You really could divide this story into three “arcs”[ha] so to speak:

Ch 1-11: “Building”

Ch 12-25 “Bullying”

Ch 26-?? is like a transition period.

Ch ??-?? “Believing”

Is this a good structure? Eh, probably not. But it just happened. Creating the story itself (and having fun doing it) was more important for me than following any sort of literary conventions, plot, reasoning, or really anything else. So why post to AO3, the literary equivalent of a Project Runway judging group instead of FFN or *gulp* Wattpad? I wanted to see reactions. I knew I would get absolutely roasted, and that’s… not what happened? Maybe all the potential roasters left after Chapter 1. I don’t blame them.

But I’m fine with it really. You all were really cool and helpful, even if I took none of your advice whatsoever.

In the earliest idea of this, right as I started writing, this fic had a much more “regimented” style. As in, every single person in Beacon, including professors and random other students, would be against Jaune, and this fic would not have even focused on him specifically.

Instead, any “defectors” would have caused essentially a civil war in Beacon about him, with direct physical team infighting, explosions, and all kinds of stuff like that. And this would have happened for every single person who would have defected, and eventually everyone would have turned around on him, resulting in a nice, happier ending.

There would have also been more stereotypical bullying against him in this fic, (basically the lunch-taking scene in chapter 23 x100), a bit more like other betrayal/revenge fics. This didn’t happen, I instead went in a more…… bigger-picture (?) perspective. The name fit a bit more with the original idea but oh well, not changing it.

Chapter 1-4: Looking back, these chapters do seem a bit “aggressive”(?), like I was trying to force a round peg into a square hole. But I can’t think about how to rewrite them.

Also, as I mentioned in the author notes of Chapter 3: A Ruby/Pyrrha relationship is right there, just begging to be fleshed out. But I know my limits (A/N: he does not know his limits), and trying to write a proper teenage relationship is outside my skillset. (A/N: He was right on that point)

The idea of having the training arena with droids was shamelessly stolen from some other RWBY fic that I forget the name of. I don’t remember where the whole “clear 3 bots to advance to the next level” thing came from though.

The “Thirty” related lines are a reference to a famous meme/Youtube video about an interviewer asking a kid on the bike “So what’s the fastest you’ve gone on your bike?” and the kid says ‘Thirty” and the interviewer follows up with ‘Thirty what?” and the kid, after some thinking, says “Speed.” I am basically that kid every time someone asks me why I do anything that I do.

Chapter 5: The “Comet Sighted” at the beginning is a reference to the strategy game Europa Universalis IV (EU4), specifically a famous event that makes you lose stability. I thought it fit considering the circumstances.

Chapter 7: Originally this chapter was called “Eccentricity is the Future” but that title sucks, so I changed it to “Whirlwind” when posting.

There is basically nothing in the first 7 chapters in regards to thoughts / deleted scenes because

1\. I only thought of doing this after Chapter 8, this was originally going to be like my first fic, having just some rare blurbs about stuff in the notes section.

2\. Almost anything I thought up, was put in.

Chapter 8: If you wonder why it looks like the breakfast scene where Yang talks about what happened at the club was cut out, it was.

An idea I had was that Yang would go back and not only meet Torchwick, who would be mad that the bar’s destruction would be loud and damaging for him and Neo, but also fight him. And it would end in a draw. Yeah.

That one was cancelled because I didn’t want to introduce a bunch of people too fast, and it just sounded a little stupid honestly. The main reason it really came about was because I originally wanted to separate the Forever Fall area into it’s own chapter, but I couldn’t think of enough Pre-Forever content to make it happen. Probably for the best.

Here is the series of texts that occurred during that chapter between Cardin and RWBYP:

yeah… I kinda forgot to put them… whoops.

Chapter 9: Some might wonder what would have been had Pyrrha been put into the dream anyway. Here is that alternate reality:

Jaune is back at home in Arcadia. It’s four years from now, right after he has graduated from Beacon as one of the top huntsmen.

He still has his trusty Crocea Mors, his reliable white armor, and even still has the Pumpkin Pete hoodie, after all this time. Too bad it no longer fits due to his muscular frame.

He even got a girlfriend! Who? Well, it’s obviously Pyrr-

**ERROR 5A151E**

**GIRLFRIEND.HMN HAS BEEN CORRUPTED. REPLACE WITH GENERIC MODEL?**

**Y(es)/N(o) [NOTE: CHOOSING NO WILL LIKELY CAUSE DREAMSCAPE TO CRASH!!!!]**

What is this? Better not interfere with his dream… [N]

He even got a girlfriend! Who? Well, it’s obviously Pyrrha!

She stands at about 6 foot 1, with rich dark red hair, and piercing green eyes. Her soft, white skin perfectly contrasts with her armor-plated DD size boobs, never mind her long, graceful legs… How descriptive is this thing?

Whatever. She’s Pyrrha, one of the most beautiful huntresses to ever grace Remnant.

“Who is thi- son?! I’m so glad you’re back!”

That’s Jaune’s father. He holds his arms out for a hug, but before Jaune can close the gap he is taken down by a ball of pure happiness.

Then two.

Then three.

Then four.

It becomes a massive pileup at the front door as Jaune can now barely breathe.

Pyrrha watches his trapped body with glee as he desperately struggles to get free.

After a desperate struggle, his sisters finally release him.

“Could’ve used the help there babe.”

“I liked seeing you shoved down like that. I didn’t want to get involved.”

“We’re gonna get along so we-” Saphron suddenly stops in her tracks.

“Wait are you Pyrrha Nikos?!?! The 40th Vytal Festival champion?!”

Pyrrha chuckles a little. Of course that’s the first question. “Yes, that’s me.”

“I watched you on TV! You were so awesome out there!”

Saphron flies over to Pyrrha like a falcon diving towards its prey.

“Can I have an autograph?! PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE”

Jaune saves her like he has done a thousand times before…

“Stop it Saph! If she wants to sign your stuff she’ll sign it.”

It gets Saphron off her back, but Pyrrha is still a little scared..

It doesn’t help that the other sisters are getting hyped up the same way.

“ **All of you! Leave her alone!** ” That’s Gary, Jaune’s Dad, trying to save her.

The rest of the sisters fall in line, now with depressed looks on their faces.

“I knew you’d make it, son.”  
  


“Thanks dad. I knew you were looking out for me.”

Jaune leads Pyrrha by the hand, sitting them down on the couch.

The other couch immediately gets crowded quite fast. Gary gets on, next to Lisa, Jaune’s mom, and Terra, who were already there.

Only three of the seven sisters manage to get on the remaining couch space. This results in the other four either with sad looks on their faces, or annoyed ones desperately trying to get them to move.

Terra jumps in first with the million dollar question.

“So, how did someone like you bag a goddess like her?”

“ **TERRA!!** ” Everyone except Saphron screams out. Saph on the other hand has a dopey grin on her face. She was about to ask the same question. She wishes she could drag her into a private room but she’s not on the couch…

Jaune supplies his answer.

“Well, we met during initiation, where she unlocked my aura, and after all that was over, we became real good friends. Then came the dance, and after I saw Pyrrha having no one to go with, I showed up in a dress.”

“Wait hold on, a dress?!” Taylor, another one of Jaune’s sisters blurts out.

Everyone starts laughing their ass off, trying to imagine him in a dress. Except for Pyrrha herself, who has a confused look on her face...

“I made a promise with her ok! If she had no one to go with I would wear a dress! And when she saw me with that dress on, she **glowed.** Brighter than the sun. And we danced for a bit and it just kinda evolved from there.”

“That’s.. one way to do it I guess!” Lisa says with a cherry attitude. This causes everyone to start laughing again. All of his sisters have tears coming out of their eyes. This laughing continues for quite a few secon-

“ **What are you talking about, Jaune?”**

Everyone stops dead. You could hear a pin drop in that room.

“What do you mean what? You were there!”

“ **No you weren’t! You were expelled!”**

“No I wasn’t! What are you on about?”

“ **What are YOU on about?! I expelled you from Beacon because you cheated!”**

Jaune is reduced to stuttering at this accusation. Suddenly, the Arc family house begins to glitch.

“I didn’t cheat! I graduated from the academy like everyone else!”

The glitches multiply with each passing word.

“ **No you didn’t, Jaune. I don’t even know how you got to this point. You are cruel, lying to your family like this.”**

The multipliers stack, as the glitches overrun the entire room at this point. Two of the sisters and several decorations have completely vanished. Lisa gains a look of shock on her face before she too disappears into a mess of glitches. Jaune tries to think of a response, and is just about to-

**ERROR 951313**

**DREAMSCAPE HAS CRASHED. CONTINUING SIMULATION AS NIGHTMARE.**

**P** **LEASE WAIT** **…** [0/182 objects converted] ETA: 28 minutes, 5 seconds

\------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately there’s no equivalent of MACtion in the RWBY universe. How disappointing.

It took more resistance than it should have to not name one of his sisters “Xenon”. Elements are cool.

Chapter 10:

Originally, I had this titled “Reclaiming the Energy”, but when posting that title just looked… odd. So I thought “Meanderer” up on the spot.

The milk-less cake recipe came from here:

<https://thebigmansworld.com/easy-vanilla-cake/>

Chapter 11:

Here is where the plan FINALLY managed to click as to where I wanted this whole fic to go. I had three members decided for the new team Jaune, Jaune of course, Nora, and Yatsuhashi, but I needed a 4th member and was struggling on which one to fill it with. I knew it wasn’t going to be Ren or Pyrrha, and I was wanting it to be one of team RWBY, but I couldn’t figure out which one I wanted it to be.

The original choice I had in my head was Yang, all the way back when I started this whole thing, but I gradually stopped feeling the idea. Then it was all murky for a while, but as I was writing that long Jaune takedown paragraph, it hit me.

Weiss would not like the bullying because It was somewhat “childish” and wouldn’t go the mentally torturing (ie. Blake) route because of remindings of her father. Then after that all that was left was to get her to split from the team somehow, and the drink spike scene, I could have made Weiss do as a “last stand” of sorts for being against Jaune. That of course would fail, and Weiss would join him.

(A/N: I wrote most of these notes while also writing the chapters, not at the end of this fic. So obviously this part in particular did not really age well. This will happen a lot.)

The team name even worked out too! JNWY (January) not only is a valid english word, it also has the ”dawn of a new beginning” kinda feel, which meshes with this whole fic quite nicely.

This is also the point where I finally dropped the chance of giving Jaune a love interest. I just couldn’t put it in without feeling like it was bolted on. I didn’t have much love for it anyway. A better writer could certainly balance both though.

Who would it have been? Yang. But looking at how the story progressed after this chapter makes me really thankful I didn’t pursue this.

Chapter 13:

Originally, this was going to have Ren and Jaune talk about Pyrrha and RWBY at the grocery store, but I wanted to give Jaune a break, so that was... shelved. *ba dum tiss*

I also originally had Pyrrha destroy his room, but decided not to. This also would have started off Nora’s involvement by her discovering the damaged room the next morning. But, I went a different way. Why? I don’t know honestly. Just stopped feeling it.

Another cancelled idea was to have someone (was leaning toward Weiss but had not completely decided before cancellation) go over near Jaune while he was sleeping, and leave him a note basically saying how he could have been pushed off the cliff right there and died, but he was lucky. I just wanted to get to the next chapter by this point so that was canned.

Chapter 14:

The Notes at the beginning are a reference to, yes, the 1962 “The Fury of Achilles” film. But that’s not the true source. The true source, and yes, this is real, is a Jon Bois video about the Troy State vs. DeVry men’s basketball game, the highest scoring game in NCAA history. It’s a good video, you really should check it out, along with every other video on the Secret Base channel. They are some of the best videos around.

<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDRmGMSgrtZkOsh_NQl4_xw>

\------

Chapter 15:

Originally I had Pyrrha interrupt Ren in the conversation and tell the full truth, and Nora would run off sad or something, but I decided to let Ren do it. I wanted it to look planned.

I realized writing the training scene that, during Chapter 12, I had gave Jaune three days off of training, but I wanted him to have training the next day so… Yeah that got changed. Good thing it was just removing the word “off” from one of the lines.

Chapter 16:

The RCA connector bit at the beginning is a reference to the connector colors; Red, White, and Yellow, and the three (Pyrrha, Weiss, Jaune) hair colors are red(-ish), white, and yellow(-ish).

Originally, this was going to be Weiss and **Yang** , and not Pyrrha, thanks to the idea I cancelled from Chapter 13. This was also going to be less love related as well. But since I cancelled the Pyrrha going insane bit, I rerouted Pyrrha over to here. Since Yang was going to be involved shortly thereafter anyway, it’s not that much of a loss in my opinion.

Also, I realized right as I was about to start writing the scene, that a Dust class does not actually exist in canon. But honestly, fuck that. I wrote the scene anyway.

I originally wanted this to be a note-passing kind of thing, just like how people used to do that kind of thing back in high school in the B.T. (before technology) time, but not only does that not fit too well with the futuristic RWBY universe, I also just can’t imagine Weiss throwing a note at him. Or gliding one to him like a cute, ice-cold paper airplane.

This one was an interesting thing to write, that’s for sure. I decided to go against logic and make him say no. This was a good point to start the disillusionment of Weiss, seeing Pyrrha go insane from the no.

Chapter 17:

And here the ice begins to crack.

Thesauruses (Thesauri?) are my best friend. A better friend than the DVD logo, that’s for sure. Why does it never go in the corner? >:{

The whole… “scene” came easily to me, despite never being in that kind of situation myself. I dunno why. Or maybe I’m just deluding myself into thinking that is how it would work.

Chapter 18:

The author’s note at the beginning is a little nudge to the idea that Pyrrha isn’t really changed from pouring her heart out like she did last chapter… Also, fun fact, I didn’t know that saying was from The Who or from music in general until looking it up, I thought it was one of those things that working-class people say, in the “Working hard, or hardly working?” sort of vein.

I thought of maybe having Nora and Yatsuhashi officially meeting by having them sit on each side of Jaune while in the sparring class. I decided to do something else later on. It was a pretty compelling idea though.

In the first fight, Ren’s bullets were originally supposed to stop Cardin’s mace dead in its tracks. In fact, here is the fight with that idea, as I had wrote it before looking in the wiki:

Cardin goes for the simplest strategy right out of the gate: Swing hard and fast.

If Cardin can get a nice smack in, he could potentially cause Ren to stumble. He is a relatively lightweight person after all.

**But his bullets aren’t.**

A single well-placed shot completely deadens the mace. From there, it’s not even a contest. Ren just shoots with the grace of a ballerina and the accuracy of a sniper, hitting (almost) all his weak spots. Cardin can only swing wildly, as Ren barely even gets touched during the entire encounter. It only lasts just over a minute before Cardin’s Aura drops into the red, ending the match.

Then I went to the wiki, and the lightness of Ren’s bullets torpedoed that idea, so I replaced it with having the shot malfunction the weapon and put it “off balance” so to speak.

Does anyone remember Chapter 4? No? Aww :(

But no matter, the second fight was fun to write. I even took the effort to extensively comb the wiki for details to make it extra canon-y.

I wanted to use a 9 in a ball during the dice roll thing, as a reference to the strongest character in all of fiction, Cirno. But it doesn’t fit, as Weiss has the ice but not the personality, and Yang has the personality but not the ice. And I didn’t want a 2 on 1 thing. Oh well...

I bet you thought that the face that was different from all the others was Yang’s. Nope. That would be too fitting.

What would have been the 4th fight? Nora vs. Coco. I can’t resist the imagery of Nora swinging her hammer at breakneck speed to deflect the bullets. But this was not to be written… Probably for the best, that seems hard to write.

…

…

Eh, fuck it.

“Coco Adel and Nora Valkyrie.”

Several cheers erupt from the crowd. Even Jaune can not resist cheering for the hammer wielder. Nora’s sad look from earlier vanishes like it was never there. If there is one thing she likes more than pancakes, it’s swinging her hammer.

Coco walks up with her weapon, Gianduja, prominently displayed. And it’s big. That thing must have 1000 bullets in it. She lays it down and begins unfolding it into a proper gun.

Nora almost jumps her way over to the arena, clearly in a fighting mood. Her hammer is at the ready, bouncing along with her. Two short hops later, she’s on the arena floor, ready to go.

“Begin!”

Against all odds, the fight starts out as a ranged contest. Coco starts shooting, and Nora bounces along the edge of the arena, casually avoiding all the bullets. She is like a cat chasing after a laser pointer, bouncing from place to place at quick speed. Nora launches three grenades at Coco, two of which get shot down by the hail of bullets.

But the third one makes it through. Coco can’t throw it back with Gianduja in time and it explodes, causing quite a bit of damage and several chars on her clothes. And everyone knows what happens when someone messes with her clothes…

“OH YOU’VE REALLY DONE IT NOW!”

Coco moves from her spot and takes direct aim at Nora, who continues to avoid most of the bullets. Nora takes a direct whack at Gianduja, which survives the hit, although it is now badly damaged. She spins herself around, charging up for a direct hit, but Coco throws Gianduja right in the middle of the pink tornado, stunning it. The bullets continue to fly as Nora begins to take more and more hits. She spins up again, this time using her hammer to deflect some of the bullets. The arena becomes unrecognizable as bullets fly in every possible direction.

Glynda is looking at this scene, silently thanking Oum that Beacon installed those shields. And those shields can be seen taking hit after hit from the bullets scattered around.

A bullet ricochets and hits Gianduja right in the barrel, breaking the weapon for good. The bullet hell is over. But the fight has only just begun. Now Coco swings it around like a ball tethered to a string, turning into a black blur.

She moves around the arena, hoping Nora will go right at her. Because once she does,

*CRACK CRACK CRACK*

...that will happen. Nora is forced onto the ground with those metal punches, but gets up before Coco can take advantage. Nora, though, is ready. She spins up quickly and hits Coco right in the chest, leaving a permanent Magnhild-shaped impression in her clothes. Coco stumbles, but doesn’t fall.

However, that one stumble is all a fully-charged Nora needs to land the decisive blow, another perfect hit straight on Gianduja, but this time it bounces off the hammer. Coco’s eyes go wide for an instant before it smacks her right in the face, the heavy weapon combined with the momentum from the hammer making it a VERY hard and painful projectile. Coco is knocked out, her aura dipping into the red.

_Coco Adel: 13%_

_Nora Valkyrie: 34%_

“The winner is Nora V-Valykrie…” Glynda almost collapses from the shock of that fight.

Everyone starts cheering, turning the room into an orchestra of shouts and clapping. Coco returns to Remnant after only a few seconds, just in time to see Nora run out of the arena in pure jubilation. Coco is about as opposite as you can get, leaving the room in anger. The clothesboy is gonna get a real workout today...

This chapter I also thought of a cool idea that was put into later chapters: A split in the betrayal club. RYC wants to physically beat him into submission, while WBP wants to mentally do the same. The WBP crew obviously got their chances, and failed. RYC is getting theirs now, with Yang this chapter, and Ruby coming up soon after. And they do the whole badgering Weiss thing later on closer to the dance. They originally all did their own thing, but this seemed more interesting, and I wanted to provide a better backdrop for the RYBN bickering in the future.

I found my favorite thing in all of the wiki, specifically in the May Zedong article, where it is stated that the designer had May Zedong’s eye covered by a beanie because “it looked cool”. And I sympathize with that. That’s basically my entire fanfiction career, all 2 (as of this writing) pieces of it.

Chapter 19:

This chapter came basically in two parts; The part before the stories, and the stories themselves. I had fun writing those stories, since I could just make shit up essentially. And this chapter officially brings Nora onto Team Jaune. I made the “convincing” part basically nonexistent, because I didn’t really need it considering her personality and how she looks up to Jaune.

Also, looking back, I did not plan the historical reference for this. (for those who don’t know, The Triple Alliance was an alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy during the early 1900’s before World War I. Italy betrayed [man, this just keeps getting more and more dumber, doesn’t it]this alliance because LOL. But it didn’t end up mattering, as Italy essentially did nothing the whole war, and got Trieste merely for being on the winning side.

Chapter 20:

Yang being expelled? It would be deserved, but I had some RYBN-y plans for her down the line.

The screaming in a pillow bit I thought made sense (because she would be mad that she couldn’t end him), but another reason for its inclusion was that it is a nod to Tom Grossi screaming into a blanket after Jordan Love was picked 26th overall by the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 NFL Draft.

Speaking of him, you should also watch the “NFC and AFC East Reaction to Week XX” series on his channel. It’s pretty cool to watch, and probably had a small hand in helping make this monstrosity happen.

I’ll link the supercut here:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbmyuyK7zAs>

Chapter 21:

The title is a reference to “The Pot calling the Kettle Black”, a famous saying. I think it’s kinda obvious but figured I should still mention it anyway.

An idea I had was to have Ruby casually bring a bag of marshmallows to roast during the meeting saying “I thought this was a campfire!” or something like that, but I shelved that. I can’t explain why but it probably has something to do with pacing or some other literary nonsense I unconsciously thought of.

I had trouble ending this without basically spoiling the next major plot point, that’s why it feels “chopped off”. Although it already has a small allusion to it in Chapter 3, I wanted it to stay down low until I got closer to there.

After this chapter I wrote a lot of the extra content I hadn’t wrote yet. Just letting you know.

Chapter 22:

I rewrote the ending to this one. This is the second time in a row I had trouble ending things. Here is the ending that was replaced…

I bolt out of the infirmary into the main hall. Nora and Yatsuhashi follow behind at a more relaxed pace.

I jump into my dorm, ready to **FINALLY** start that Grimm Wars 2 DLC! I reach for my-

It’s not there.

“You forgot this.” Yatsu comes to the rescue again with-

That’s not my scroll. That’s Crocea Mors! And it’s bent!

“Thanks Yatsu…” Oum dammit! I’m gonna have to buy one already! Good thing I have 6000 Lien to use for it. And it’s gonna have dust, that’s for sure. But no time to think about that! I need to find my scroll!

I look around the room just in case I left it here and… nope.

Maybe back in the infirmary? I bolt back down there, bumping into several people along the way.

I find my former hospital room, and, surprise, nothing has changed after 8 minutes. But I still look for my scroll regardless.

I check every single nook and cranny, but still it refuses to show.

“AAAAH! Why does it have to go missing today of all days?!”

I think about what to do. The Dust class starts in about 10 minutes… but do I want to go to that? Should I go to that? I have nothing better to do, I guess…

_**One surprisingly fun Dust class later...** _

That was actually… really informative. My notebook is filled even better than before now that there was no **distractions…** But now I still have the problem from earlier! What do I do?

I think… too bad lunch doesn’t start for another hour… training is a long bit off, and I have no weapon…

Got it! I’ll go back to the gardens! And lose myself in the beautiful flowers again…

I go out and thankfully they are empty. But there is one problem… What time is it? I’ll stay out here forever without some way to keep track.

Then I remember one of the few memories I have from those camping trips: sundials. All I need is a triangular rock and a gnomon.

The rock is easy, but a proper gnomon is harder. I have to look through dozens and dozens of nearly identical oval-y rocks to find a good one.

With it all in hand, I get to work. It was around 11-ish, so gotta get the rock on the thing, look for the shadow… and… done! It’ll work.

With everything done, I look out into the flowers again. The first place I go is the spot where Yatsu’s flowers were earlier, where the flowers that were once crushed are replaced with tall, healthy ones bursting with color.

That’s all it takes, and I feel the tranquility wash over me like soap washing away all the dirt. God, I needed this… again...

As you can see, it was a little “lighter” than the ending I ultimately went with.

My only regret is not being able to use the word “gnomon” in the chapter.

Chapter 23:

At the start of this chapter, I officially noticed a mistake I made, regarding the timescale of some previous chapters. See if you can spot it. I don’t really do rewrites, especially not just for that, so I left it as it was.

The inspiration for what Yatsu is eating came from here:

<https://www.apinchofhealthy.com/mexican-shredded-chicken/>

I really like chicken so… :)

This story almost trapped itself in a clusterfuck in this chapter. With his scroll stolen, he can’t do much of anything, as specifically stated in this story. And there is no good way to write him being “given it back” by Pyrrha or whoever else. I could have just made Weiss do it or something, but it feels “cheap” to do that. There were three ways to salvage this:

1: Cancel the scroll stealing, requiring significant edits to several chapters, including an almost complete rewrite of the non-dream part of Chapter 22. This comes with the obvious drawback of having to rewrite it all and coming up with new ideas. Hard, but definitely possible. After all, I got this far with writing relatively random ~~bullshit~~ stuff, no reason it wouldn’t work now.

2: Have the staff give him a new one. On one hand, I don’t have to rewrite anything. That’s obviously good. I also have more options at my disposal such as “getting used to a new scroll” “recovery of data” etc etc. This also has its own drawbacks, as doing this brings up some obvious questions:

Why is Glynda not telling Jaune about things?

What about Ozpin?

Should it be possible to just transfer data from scroll to scroll like this?

Should he have to buy it with some of that weapon money?

The last two can be reasonably answered, but not the other two. At least not easily.

3: Rewrite Chapter 23 to have the scroll be given back to him. This has the drawback of not being sensible at all. This story is already (really, has always been) a bit nonsensical, doing something like this just screams “plot device”, and it conflicts with the whole idea of RWBYPC being “takers” from him. A bully doesn’t give back, unless they do it for shock value / revenge.

Revenge… there’s too much of that already.

Shock Value would manifest in the form of Pyrrha giving it back, with really fucked up imagery, pointing toward a “Yandere” kind of thing. I don’t like putting that in here for two reasons:

1: It doesn’t make too much sense.

2: It puts the focus too much on her. It needed to be focused on her to start this whole process, but I want to keep it mostly on Jaune once it’s put on him, which was around Chapter 14 or so, certainly by Chapter 19.

I seriously considered just going down the Pyrrha Yandere road anyway, despite the questioning, despite the reasoning here, despite everything. But in the end, after a lot of thinking, I decided against it.

I made the decision to go with option 2, because rewriting sucks, giving the scroll back looks bad, and I like a challenge. But I totally understand if it doesn’t make sense. Just something to learn from I suppose…

The Pyrrha Yandere idea was the hardest one so far to cancel, because I was a little invested in building up for writing this one, seeing him be shocked at the imagery the scroll would contain. Honestly more than the Ruby related stuff in the following two chapters. But I think it’s better this way.

**This goes to show, this fic had more thought put into it than it looks from the outside.**

I used “imperfections” instead of “specks” when talking about Jaune counting them because I wanted to avoid a potential “Beacon’s ceilings don’t have specks on them!” thing. See, I told you, you are in the presence of a literary genius.

This chapter took 3 days to write, by far the longest of them all. That’s probably nothing for most of you guys, but for me that is an outlier and a half.

Chapter 24:

When I was finishing up Chapter 11 and thinking up the potential Ruby scene, it was originally supposed to be Chapter 14 **.** **FOURTEEN**. And then my mind just did what it does…

The title for these two chapters, “Repainted”, is a reference to a type of romhack where almost every texture and sound is replaced with random and usually amusing objects from literally everywhere.

What I just said up there was a lie. But I can’t not at least mention that kind of hack.

The real reason was simply because I thought it made sense considering the chapters’ content.

Originally this was going to be on the same day as the other two major things that happened to Jaune, but I decided against that. That’s probably a good decision.

The inspiration for the weapons shop name was basically directly stolen from here:

<https://brandongaille.com/list-33-catchy-gun-company-names/>

specifically the “Cascade Aerospace” one. I told you, I’m bad at names.

I think I went a little overboard with the references to one specific thing in this chapter. Even worse than Chapter 9.

You might have a question: Where did the 1000 Lien from way earlier go? The answer is: Grimm Wars 2 DLC. Why? Well, the game itself is a nod to Hearts of Iron IV (that’s where the DLC names come from), and the developer, Paradox Interactive, is famous for having DLC for just about fucking everything. Unit graphics, Music, Country-Specific focus trees, etc.

And thus, Jaune spent it all on that. Fuck Paradox DLC policies.

Chapter 25:

Ruby’s involvement in this scene was going to be much, much, much different. She was originally going to notice Jaune while he was in the store, and from there get enraged because he was a “fake hero” and basically try to kill him multiple times, but always get stopped at the last moment because someone steps in front of her or Jaune moves away or something.

And then, like the size of Pluto, the amount of interaction between them got smaller and smaller, until I eventually decided to almost completely can them interacting at all and just show her mind’s POV + explanation in this separate chapter.

The original title for this chapter, back when I was thinking in that original direction, was “Sniped by an AnCom”

The “AnCom” is a reference to the flag of the Anarcho-Communists, Red and Black. Ruby is also Red and Black, with the Black hair being the main basis for all this.

The final title, “The Cayenne Kick” came from the vibrant red of (most) cayenne powder. Before I came up with that title (at 4AM, BTW), it was “Red Tenacity”.

This was also a convenient segue moving toward the next plot point, a “return of angry Yang” of sorts, which would eventually culminate in the drink-spiking scene.

I was dreading this chapter. But after I decided against the sniper stuff, it all came easy, only taking about 4 hours to write the whole thing. I think it’s one of my better ones.

Chapter 26:

The name “Risorgimento” is a term referring to the Reunification of Italy, for the first time since the Byzantines (AKA ROME) lost full control of Italy during the 600s. Obviously Ruby and Jaune are reunifying with their “teams” for the first time after the whole weapons shop thing, and Jaune’s weapon name, as mentioned earlier, has an Italian word in it, so it fits perfectly.

The beginning paragraph is a parody of “How it’s Made”, specifically the Pillow segment, narrated by Brooks Moore. He’s the best narrator of the series.

The Ren thing was the reusing of that cancelled idea in Chapter 13, and I wanted to show how Nora cozying up to Jaune [( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)] affects him a fair bit. But yet he still cooks for her.

I included a nod to Qrow and Frowen because Frowen commented on like every single one of the chapters. Didn’t expect that, that’s for sure, but it’s appreciated. Makes me feel all happy and warm inside.

Nora was gonna clap wildly and bounce around upon seeing Jaune’s weapon, but I replaced that with a beaming face of wonder. Still flashy but a bit less dumb. As for the chainsaws… look I had to come up with something, ok? Tell me you wouldn’t stare at someone doing that with expert skill for the first time. I know I would.

This chapter took 3 days to write. So now I have to talk about that update… I grew as a writer writing this. You may not believe it, but it’s true. I was better than when I started. There is multiple very small little nudges to Weiss’s inclusion on Team Jaune. This doesn’t happen in my first fic. And that’s just one example. There’s many, many more.

Everything that was mentioned in that update was true. All of it. Chapter 23’s ending was the first time I really thought about cancelling it. I pushed through that, but the paralysis came back strong with this chapter. And I posted that update at the end of that, and didn’t post any of the built-up chapters until I was certain I would or would not finish.

The day after was judgment day. If Chapter 27 did not go well, this fic was done. And it ultimately ended up being the dagger.

Chapter 27:

This chapter was cool. I’ve been wanting to get Jaune back on the training droids for a while, and I finally get my chance! And boy does he go. It took a bit to figure out how far I wanted to let him go, and how I wanted to scale him relative to the rest of his peers. (Don’t wanna be overpowered, after all) I think I did a good job.

I had to include a reference to integer overflow errors. I love math. This also was a good chance to show that with Pyrrha’s power of magnetism, she could essentially cheat the game, as she cheats lots of other things. But only Glynda can get past the kill screen, because she is special.

I had Nora do the twirly thing in her simulation because I thought that sounded cool, and to subtly hint at the team thing again. I dare you to tell me that Nora twirling around and having bots essentially bounce off of her is not an enticing image. Go ahead, do it! That’s what I thought.

The Dust class part was pretty much completely made up. But I wanted him to show off a bit.

I made him have some steak for the lunch because it wasn’t pizza or chicken, and I wanted something different. Man, there is a lot of meat in this story… but they are huntsmen though. So they need it to be as strong as they are. At least that’s what I’m going with.

I wanted to put in another recipe for Yatsu, and I originally was gonna go with a gelatin kind of thing, but then I looked around on Google for lunch ideas and found this picture:

<https://helloadamsfamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/healthy-lunch-ideas2-768x1024.jpg>

This picture came from here:

<https://helloadamsfamily.com/2020/03/04/5-healthy-lunch-ideas-to-make-at-home/>

I think that looks fucking amazing, so I used it. Does it make sense? Eh, not really. But it looks cool, and my brain isn’t triggered because I added it.

The sparring class stuff was meant to do two, and only two things:

1: Help set up for the rest of this fic

2: Be filler material so I could get to the part with the stuffed turkey

And it did both jobs.

I wanted to make it as boring as possible too, so I made the two most boring fighters I could think of battle. (Velvet would have been one but I used her earlier) Also put the Trench Warfare stuff in to signify just how bleh and useless the fight really is. Blake and Cardin I used because that fight would be a blowout of epic proportions. And then I could skip from there.

Anyone catch the Doki Doki reference? It was a bit forced, but then again, so are all the other ones.

And now the stuffed turkey! I like turkey. Even the country of Turkey is a cool place. Did you know it has a city named after Batman in it?

Anyway, the conversation about the guy who took turkey to the beach is a reference to a funny game show moment from Family Fortunes, where the second family member in the fast money round says “Turkey” to the first three questions. It’s really funny, especially how he answers the first question.

<https://youtu.be/MHiGT_odU2Y?t=121>

I wanted Yatsuhashi to go shopping for a suit or something to wear for the dance, but then I thought “How the hell is he gonna come back from there?”, and couldn’t find a satisfactory answer, so it was canned.

I made Nora basically a bloodhound because it makes sense. If she loves pancakes so much, she’s gotta have a nose for them. Why not expand it to other food? The “giving the food out to others” part was put in because that’s what you do with food! And I was gonna use it in the Weiss scene.

{A/N: Remember kids, always check your meat before beating it! Wait, I meant “eating” it. It works both ways. Why tell you this? Uhhhhhhh…}

Q&A:

People might have a question, which makes perfect sense especially considering other Jaune betrayal fics:

**Where is Cinder and friends?**

To which I answer, the original plan did include them as a sort of temptation to go the evil way. But I realized pretty early on that Jaune was not gonna do that, so at best it would be just a side thing. I didn’t really want to have a “dual focus” thing going on with two sides pulling on him, I’m just not good enough to flesh that out properly.

Another idea I had pretty early was to keep the fic pretty much as what it is up through about Chapter 21 or so, but to have Cinder and friends take advantage of the team chaos and absolutely crush Beacon, even worse than in canon, with no dramatic stand or anything. Just cold, hard, superiority.

But then a question that has probably derailed many a fic idea reared its ugly head:

**Then what?**

And I could not answer that. So it was cancelled. No way was I gonna kill them all or something to force an ending.

**What’s with all the fucking food?**

I like food.

**What inspired this fic?**

There isn’t a true “inspiration” for this, but while writing I did think about something, something I had watched many, many years ago. This is probably the only reason I ever wrote a single fanfiction to begin with, and I think this unconsciously influenced me a whole hell of a lot. It is…… *drum roll*

<https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFB8509F85B1DA408>

This is a fanfic in video form called “Diamond in the Rough”. It was meant to be a mockery, but I remember watching this whole thing back around 5-6 years ago, completely serious. I don’t remember much of it now, (I used to be REALLY into Touhou back then, thank god that era is behind me) but there is no way that did not influence me somehow.

Picking a RWBY fic I have read that may have influenced me, it would be:

**The** **S** **ong of** **H** **er** **H** **eart** from fanfiction.net

This one was really, really interesting to me. I don’t know why, it just was. Maybe I like pain and suffering.

Other RWBY fics that I just like in general are:

Stress Relief and One Night Brand from fanfiction.net

They’re much better fics than this, check them out.

**Where am I going from here?**

I don’t know honestly. My mind still has several ideas floating around, but trying to execute them is probably not a good idea right now. Maybe after a break.

That’s it for me! I hope you enjoyed this experimental story, even with all of its flaws. (And trust me, there are **many** ) I know I enjoyed writing this. I hope this inspires you to take a new spin on a fic type that you commonly see somewhere. As they say, variety is the spice of life!

**P.S. I still don’t like the anime.**

Ruby Rose

Yang Xiao Long

Blake Belladonna

Pyrrha Nikos

RYBN (Ribbon)? ← Going with this one. A ribbon is vulnerable to flowing in the wind. I can apply that as being vulnerable to the flow of the bickering and having the team fail because of it.

BRYN (Brine)?

BYRN (Barn or Burn)?

NBLR (Nibbler)?

RYLBPN is a really bad letter list.. god. So limiting, especially the double B’s.

Coco Adel

Velvet Scarlatina

Fox Alistair

Lie Ren

CAVSFALR

CRAS (Craze)?

LAFS (Laughs)?

RAVA? <\- Mutilate-A-Doll is a good series, check it out on Flashpoint

<https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/>

CALS (Calls)?

SAAR? <\- Nice Historical Reference, I’ll give it that… but no.

CARS?

CRAV (Crave)?

CSAR (Caesar)? <\- Maybe in another fic…

LAVA?

Fox can not be leader, so nothing can start with F… or can he? Maybe that would be a cool little twist to put in. No one would be expecting it that’s for sure. I can justify it too! Coco is too rash, Velvet is too meek (poor, poor Velvet, the true loser of this story), Ren is new and also a bit quiet.

With Fox as Leader…

FLAV (Flavor)?

FALS (Falls)?

FAVR (Favor)? <\- Especially fits when talking about a QB who **really** should not have pondered passing...

FASR (Faster)?

FARS (Farce)? <\- interesting idea…

Obviously JNWY is decided, but for shits and giggles…

Jaune Arc

Nora Valkyrie

Weiss Schnee

Yatsuhashi Daichi

SAND? <\- No.

DAWN? <\- Maybe this would have been my second choice? I’m surprised this was even possible.

WAND? <\- Maybe in another fic…

JYWN (June)? <\- This one seems interesting too. Man all of these have some literary stuff attached to them somehow…

SYAN (Cyan)? <\- The only thing I’ll say is that if you stretch things a bit, we have three out of four colors for a CMYK color space.

JYVS (Jives)?

I’ll stop here. That V is more limiting than one would think. Probably would have chosen JNWY anyway if I had already not decided.

**Author's Note:**

> Trying to make a Jaune Betrayal/Revenge fic that isn’t “Jaune gets overpowered and fucks over everyone” like most of them are, despite how fun that is. The thing is I don’t even like the RWBY anime. Or really any anime for that matter. I don’t know why I can’t get them out of my head though…


End file.
